Exploring the South Island (IV/IV)

This will be the final instalment of my NZ South Island adventures. We will take the road from Wanaka to Lake Tekapo and end up star gazing from the Mt John Observatory.

Introduction: is this really the end?

This will be my last article about my South Island road trip.

Not that it ended there that day. But after the stopover in Lake Tekapo, I continued the roadtrip to the east coast of the island and drove south to Dunedin.

I wrote an article about it, that you can find -> here <-

But the experience on the east coast was very different and most of the action took place in relatively larger the cities. So I thought it deserved its own space.

Ticking the boxes on the bucket list, one item at a time…

Also high on my bucket list was Lake Tekapo, the destination for my next leg.

And as they say, sometimes the journey is the reward.

Having been so focused on the preconceived expectations of what Lake Tekapo would be, with [spoiler alert] some star gazing as the highlight of the stoppover, I was clearly unprepared for the journey itself. And what a kick in the teeth it turned out to be.

I started the journey in a very dusty and fiery environment, dominated by yellowish colours.

After a quick stop at the top of Lindis Pass to take some photos, I browsed the Lonely Planet to see if there were any sights worth seeing on the way to Lake Tekapo.

And it seemed that some Clay Cliffs enjoyed a certain popularity in the region. The only downside was that the road to get there was unpaved and on a private land. Something we are not used as European.

So you had to pay some sort of entrance fee. But it was 5 NZD, so reasonable I guess? I mean technically I could have walked/run the nearly 10km loop from the entrance to the cliffs and back.

But time is money…and with all the camera equipment, and the heat, that would have been challenging 🙂

All in all, the stopover was definitely worth it. The walk to the cliffs was relatively short, but quite challenging because of the steepness. Luckily I was wearing my trail running shoes, unlike some of the tourists who were wearing flip-flops. Borderline dangerous if you ask me…

A pit stop in Omarama for a coffee refill…

After a quick coffee break at a local restaurant in Omarama, I pushed on towards Lake Tekapo.

The idea was to get there not too late, check into the hostel I had booked a few hours earlier, have a shower, a nap and an early dinner so I could be ready for the walk to the Mt John Observatory before nightfall. More on that later.

So I didn’t stop in Omarama for long and headed for Lake Pukaki. In the distance I could see a rest area full of cars and coaches. At first I didn’t know why.

But the closer I got, the more sense it made.

I was entering another world. The yellow/orange colors were fading and a very intense shade of blue was emerging.

The road continues…

…but a few hundred meters later I had to stop again. I had spotted a small dirt road leading closer to the lake. The opportunity was too good to pass up.

So I followed the trail and boy did it not disappoint. With this new perspective and the yellow grass leading down to the lake, it gave the pictures a lot more depth.

And ends at Lake Tekapo…

For today at least. So I parked the car and went straight to check into my Hostel, Haka House Lake Tekapo. Everything went smoothly. I had secured a only for once 4-beds mixed dorm 😉

After a quick shower, I went to the local supermarket to stock up for breakfast and my planned night shift at the Mt John Observatory.

The last thing to do to get ready for tonight’s action was to get some calories in, and believe it or not, I was craving for some… Asian food 😀

But Japanese this time. So I ordered take-away at Kohan, the Japanese restaurant across the street.

Dark Sky Project

One of the top thing you can do in Lake Tekapo is the heavily advertised Dark Sky Project.

This consists of several experiences you can do, either directly in town, with a so-called virtual stargazing experience. But you could also do the crater or the summit experience, at the Mt John Obervatory.

And I had a clear preference for the latter. However, the cost of the adventure was almost prohibitive (NZD 209) for a 2h in total experience. And it was fully booked for weeks.

So what option did I have left? Resort to one of the other options still available? Or be smart and create my own experience?

I think the answer is in the question 😉

Do you really need to book a tour?

Well, if you have no previous knowledge of astronomy and would like to have the explanations of a professional, then I would say yes, definitely.

However, if, like me, your main aim is to look at the stars and try to take some pictures, then I would say no, probably not.

So what did I do in the end?

First of all, I made sure that I had the necessary “equipment”, i.e.

• Warm clothes: at least a fleece and a windproof jacket, as it can get windy up there.
• Hiking boots, but good trail running sneakers will do for the walk, it is not complicated at all.
• A headlamp for the way back, or at least a torch.
• My e-reader…and
• Some “fun drink”, as my loved one would call it. In my case, a bottle of wine (I didn’t drink it all, calm down 😉

I checked online when the sun would go down, and about an hour before I took the car and drove to the start of the trail, which was at the car park -> here <-

Then before it was getting too dark, I started the ascent, which took about an 30min in total. But I’m in good physical conditions. So depending on yours, add ±20min or so. Below, you can have an idea of the loop-hike. Back and forth will take you an hour, with only 270m elevation gain. So it is accessible to almost everyone.

When I got to the top, there was just enough light to find a good spot to set up my camera.

So, as you can see, I deliberately didn’t bring my normal tripod, just a small gorillapod, which is lighter and more compact at one end.

On the other hand, it doesn’t give you the same flexibility to set up your camera the way you want to, or at least the way you need to for descent astronomy photography.

With my red glass in hand, one eye on my e-reader and the other on the sky, I waited until dusk gave way to darkness.

After taking a few photos from my spot, and being a curious person by nature, I still wanted to take a closer look at the view from the observatory.

So I set off with my headlamp and, about 300m further on, I found the observatory. I came up against a small fence and a sign indicating that this was a private area.

So of course you have to respect this injunction. And above all, that little barrier is there for a reason.

Now, if you had the urge, and you knew how to move around in the dark without making (too much) noise and above all without needing a torch, as your eyes quickly get used to the dark, and provided you’re not a group of 20 people, then nobody would notice your presence.

I don’t know if it was my dark clothing and/or the skills I’d learnt in the army to move around the terrain unnoticed, but the fact remains that I managed to blend in completely, and groups from the Dark Sky Project literally walked by 5m away without noticing me.

It was funny in a way. I was very tempted to sneak up behind people to scare them off, but I refrained for fear that there might be someone in the group with a weak heart.

And having some buildings around help to give some depth to the picture.

At about 2 in the morning I decided to go back down to the car and call it a night.

Despite the tiredness and my bed cries, I met two fine gentlemen in the lobby.

Both of them were also into astronomy photography. So we spent another hour or so swapping tips and trips on picture taking. And at about 3:30 in the morning I finally collapsed on my bed.

The day after

Still tired from the night activities, I hoped I could have slept longer. But the checkout was at 11am.

And there was already a great deal of activity in the room, which made it impossible to sleep any longer.

On top of that, I didn’t know what I was going to do for the next few days, so I had to plan quickly as I didn’t want to spend another night in Lake Tekapo.

So after the usual healthy breakfast, i.e. Budgwig Cream for those of you who know it, I went outside for a breath of fresh air, to get my thoughts together and take a few photos of the Church of the Good Shepherd, another of Lake Tekapo’s landmarks.

Totally undecided about what I wanted to do and where fate was taking me, I had to turn to my Lonely Planet to narrow down the options.

Closing thoughts

As mentioned in the introduction, I ended up driving all the way south to Dunedin, along the east coast. Read the related article -> here <-

In retrospect, was it really the best thing to do?

Do I wish I had booked a group hike to Mt Cook, for example, one of New Zealand’s most famous landmarks?

Yes and no. And again, at what cost? And what if the weather had been terrible, with fog or rain?

Ultimately, I think I value the freedom to choose according to my energy or mood at the time more than anything else.

Now if I want to be fully honest, I think I could have kept Oamaru but skipped Dunedin, for all the reasons mentioned in the related article.

And replace it with what? Probably a trip to Milford Sound or Te Anau, in the Fjord Lands. Probably the same type of scenery you can find in Scandinavia/Norway. But probably much less familiar to us Swiss.

At some point, whale watching was also high on my bucket list. And Kaikoura seemed to be the main base from which the boats depart.

However, online research showed me that the usual tours, on big motor boats with 200+ passengers, that lasted 2h or so were rather pricey for what it was.

And cruises on smaller, more environmentally-friendly boats cost even more.

Last but not least, something I wanted to do and we thought about it with my cousin was to hike in the Queen Charlotte Sound.

We didn’t manage to do it because it was a bit complicated with the family/kids. So we did a road trip on the Coromandel Peninsula which turned out to be great as well.

But a hike in Queen Charlotte Sound is definitely something I’ll mark down for my next trip to New Zealand.

The nice thing about it is that you can do an a-la-carte program. There are water taxis running in-between the different spots.

So ultimately, you can decide for how long you want to hike, on the 71km Queen Charlotte Track, usually between 3 to 5 days. And at night, you can also sleep on boats, that also serve food and drinks.

Doesn’t it sound appealing?

But again, no regrets. That gives me plenty of things to do when I’ll come back to New Zealand.

I’ll leave you now and see you later for the last two posts in this blog about my New Zealand adventures. Hopefully before the end of 2024.

1. The penultimate article will be about the road trip around Mount Taranaki, with some highlights on the North Island.
2. And as a concluding thought, the last article will be a sort of summary of my two months in the Antipodes.

I’ll be reflecting on my experiences travelling around the country and showing a curated selection of my favourite photos.

So I leave it for now. Stay tuned!