We got up and headed to the gym around 6:30. We are still on BC time, going to bed around 9 (midnight at home) and getting up around 5 (8 am at home). We had the best porridge ever at the hotel restaurant, with fresh fruit, yogurt and granola on top. We got on the road at about 9:20 and headed west on a secondary highway. The speed limit is 100 km/hr (I think that's the maximum everywhere in the country). We travelled through Canterbury which is farm country. It's very flat and every field is divided by what I thought were trees from the air but seen from ground level we can see that they are hedges. These hedges are 15, 20, 30 feet high and a lot of them are trimmed into perfect rectangles.
We saw a few horses, a lot of cattle and hundreds of sheep, along with fields of corn, wheat and other crops. Everything is very lush and green. After a while we came to rolling hills. We took the time to stop at a rest area and just enjoyed and took in the sights. Next we stopped at the Rakaia Gorge and crossed the one lane bridge which was built in 1882.
The road got a little windy (curvy), but nothing like what we are used to. We travelled on to Staveley where we had lunch at a cute store and café - well, the only store and café. There were a couple of signs across the road that told a bit of the area history. We walked up the road to the old church which is very picturesque.
We took another break in Fairlie where we picked up milk and cookies at a grocery store. There were a lot of tourists in town so we had a quick snack and left.
We drove on and got to Lake Tekapo around 2:30. We checked into our hotel right across the road from the lake. We have a gorgeous view of the little chapel on a point. There are lots of tour busses, this is a very popular stop for the Chinese tourists, of which there are many. It had warmed up to shorts weather, so we got changed and took a walk across the bridge to the chapel. It was very busy so we thought we'd go back in the evening, but by 8 we were exhausted and in bed by 9 again. This place is a dark sky reserve and I was hoping to see the stars tonight, but sunset is 9:30 so it didn't happen.
The lake is blue-green due to the rock flour in the water, which we see often in the Rockies.
By the way, my hair is channeling Monica Geller in Barbados. I left my hair care products at home, thinking I would buy travel sized things when I got here. I got the grossest hair spray but that's all I could find.
Unfortunately we could not get the Wi-Fi in our room, so I could not post to my blog.
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