I was up early this morning because everyone in my room was leaving for their next bus journey whilst I was staying an extra night. I had originally planned to spend an extra night in Lake Tekapo to get get the shuttle out to the Mount Cook national park and do one of the many walks beneath the mountain, which requires ice picks and crampons to climb. Yesterdays weather meant I was reluctant to commit however which meant I instead planned an alternative walk round the lake instead. It was just my luck when waking up that it was sunny day, although the mountains were still covered in cloud!
Breakfast this morning was just my last remaining rolls which I toasted up before heading out for a walk which included some geocaching. My first find of the day took me into the shopping based area and I took the opportunity here to both look round the gift shops, but also visit the information centre for a map. Despite only having a handful of shops, there were some real quirky places for such a small place.
I then headed round to this little old church which is one of the most popular places to get married in New Zealand. On a warm summers day you can get cracking mountain views over the lake, aided by this glass window on the back wall of the small isolated building. Whilst here I found another cache nearby this statue of a dog which I can't remember what for, but was famous for doing something. Continuing on now out of town, I found a further cache before joining the main road to head to the nearby park.
Only opened to the public in recent years, the Lake Tekapo Regional Park is a coniferous forest following the lakes edge one side and the foot of the imposing nearby mountains on the other. Nowadays this area is popular with both cyclists and dog walkers, but it also the perfect area to hide geocaches as the tree interference can make it challenging. I found this out with my first find as my gps was going all over the place before I eventually found what I was looking for! All in all I found 3 caches in here, frustratingly not getting one which was meant to be inside this old shack.
After going up to this viewpoint to see the snow capped mountains surrounding the area, I worked my way through the forest down to the lake. Whilst here I just took a gentle stroll, seeing these really weird mushrooms on the way! Briefly going via town, I had two more potential finds along the canal. The walks itself was really nice starting by this dam before gently climbing through these quad bikes tracks right up a hill. Luckily I got the find here which came with some alternative views of Lake Tekapo and the flat plains heading out the other way.
My last find of the day had extra significance being my 900th find, and I well and truly had a trek to get to it being the wrong side of this fast flowing river. Luckily I found a dam of large rocks holding back the water at the nearby HEP plant which I managed to get a across before heading back through open land to get a quick find. From here, being rather content with myself, I headed back to the hostel back along the other side of the river which was basically one big hill.
Arriving back at like 1, my early start had created an early finish which meant which meant I just spent the afternoon relaxing. Come late afternoon I headed out to the Tekapo Springs which were these hot pools and sauna. I found out though that the ice rink and snow tube doesn't open until the 18th though which was frustrating! It was a nice and relaxing evening in the outdoor based pools of 36, 38 and 40 degrees. I even got to so relaxed the cool evening air which was in the dark by now didn't feel cold! I also spent my time rotating between the sauna room too which I was effectively using by relaxing inside the sauna for a while, then jumping into their 8 degree plunge pool after!
All in all it was a pretty well spent evening, heading back to the hostel by gone 7 in the end! Dinner this evening was Lamb Rogan Josh and rice, which took ages to cook for some reason. It was then films again all evening which was the same as yesterday to start with, although they showed Harry Potter after which was a welcome alternative. I went to bed after this film as it was slightly chilly inside despite having the fire going!
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