Yesterday, we left Akoroa and travelled back up the winding road and over the rim of the volcano onto the flat plains of Canterbury. We travelled through farmland until we joined the main highway to the south in constant light rain and drizzle.
Just after joining the highway, we crossed the longest bridge on the South Island over the Rakaka River, one of New Zealand’s wide braided rivers. This river was originally crossed by a timber bridge, begun in 1869 and modified to carry both road and rail traffic in 1873. Two seperate bridges were completed in 1939 and both are over 1.7 kilometres long.
I guess that because it’s on a major highway, the bridge carries traffic in both directions although many of the bridges in rural areas are narrow with only one lane. They have a sign indicating which direction has right of way so you need to look carefully to see if any vehicles are approaching from the other direction.
It was still raining when we reached the major town of Ashburton and tried to find a cafe in which to buy lunch. We found it difficult as most of the town was closed for the public holiday. Eventually, we found Barkers cafe in the next town of Geraldine. The Barker family’s produce company is well known in New Zealand for producing jams and condiments. The cafe was booming and we had difficulty finding a table. Unknowingly, I had already bought a jar of their wild berry jam for my toast for breakfast.
Because of the rain and drizzle, I hardly took any photographs for the entire day. However, it began to clear by late afternoon when we reached MacKenzie country with its rolling hills.
Fortunately , by the time that we had reached Lake Tekapo the weather was quite clear and I was able to photograph the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd.
Opened in 1935, this is the only church in the town of Lake Tekapō and it continues to be a place of worship for local residents.
The builders of the Church were instructed that the site was to be left undisturbed, and that even the matagouri bushes surrounding the building were to remain. Rocks which happened to be on the wall line were not to be removed. The stones for the wall were to be procured from within a radius of five miles of the site, and were to be unchipped and in their natural condition. The original roof was of wooden shingles, but had to be replaced with the present slates in 1957.
Before reaching our next overnight stop at Twizel, we stopped at a number of viewpoints that looked over Lake Takapo. The surrounding mountains were still covered in cloud but the views were impressive.
Twizel is one of New Zealand’s youngest towns. It began as a hydro construction town when the government laid out 1,200 blocks of land and 23 km of road, on 260 hectares of former Ruataniwha Station land. Schools, and shopping and community centres were built. From a population of nil in 1969, Twizel had between 5,000 and 6,000 inhabitants by 1975.
We made the mistake of going to the local pub for dinner. The service was exceptionally slow and it took nearly ninety minutes for our meal to be served. It was quite appropriate that they deducted 50% of our bill. We weren’t game to order dessert but did think of ordering breakfast which might have been ready by the next morning!
The late night didn’t really matter much as today we had an easy day travelling the relatively short distance along shores of Lake Pukaki to the Mt Cook Village with its splendid alpine views. The weather improved during the day and we were able to capture better images on the way back in the afternoon.
Mount Cook ( or Aoraki by its Māori name) is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, as of 2014, is listed as 3,724 metres. Situated in the Southern Alps, it is part of the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. It’s always a popular tourist destination as we found out at the Hooker Valley car park.
We spent some time looking around but I don’t think that my images of the area need much explanation.
