On the South Island in New Zealand there is a wonderful turquoise lake — Lake Tekapo. Surrounded by mountains with snow-capped peaks and fields descending to the lake in places, it attracts the eye.
We visited him on the way to Mount Cook National Park. But you can’t just take and drive past such beauty! Therefore, we devoted several hours to the lake and its surroundings: not enough time to explore the place thoroughly (the lake is quite large, more than 80 square kilometers in area), but enough to see a lot of beauty around.
The turquoise or rich blue color of the water is a distinctive feature of glacial lakes, which are fed by mineralized melt water from glaciers. Lake Tekapo is definitely one of these — both rivers that flow into it carry their waters from the Southern Alps. And the lake itself is located at a level of about 700 m above sea level. The color of the water, of course, is highly dependent on the lighting, the sky, and the viewing angle. Actually, it's one of the places with the highest number of clear days per year in New Zealand, but we got partly cloudy sky.
But even when the water is almost gray in shallow water in cloudy weather, its beautiful turquoise color is still visible in the distance. The trip was in April, it's autumn in New Zealand, so you can find green, yellow, and red colors in the trees and bushes. And the mountains and foothills, which are higher, are white with snow.
Along the shores, where grasses and shrubs, it is pleasant to walk. In the distance is the island of Motuariki, covered with trees. It, by the way, is also depicted in the second photo of this post, but from a different angle.
In general, everywhere you look, you will find mountains on the horizon. And although they are not so close and sometimes not very tall, they turn white so temptingly!
When the sun peeks through the clouds and illuminates the lake, everything becomes bright and magical.
It's funny, part of the grass is still green, but not far away it turned yellow. Autumn comes unevenly :)
At the southern end of Lake Tekapo, the Tekapo River flows out of it and there, on both banks of the river, there is a town called Lake Tekapo or (to reduce confusion with the lake itself) simply Tekapo. Yes, there are some difficulties with the variety of names :) The lake is quite popular with tourists: there are a sufficient number of trails for lovers of hiking or cycling, and water activities, and Mount Cook National Park and the neighboring large lake Pukaki are not far away. Therefore, the town provides a fairly large selection of places to stay.
A beautiful openwork bridge for pedestrians is thrown across the river in the town. It is very pleasant to walk along it and look at the lake and everything around. For cars, of course, there is also a bridge, a little further away.
Another popular tourist attraction is the Church of the Good Shepherd, a small Anglican church said to be one of the most photographed churches in New Zealand. It was built in 1935 in memory of the first settlers.
The building is quite small, lined with local stone and fits well into the surrounding landscape. Inside there is one unusual detail — a large window in the altar part overlooking the lake. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside, and the church is not open all the time, but during the daytime it is usually open to the public.
At the church, we lingered for a while and went on to explore the shores of the lake. Still, the trips I go on are usually more about nature. And that time, besides, we went with the organizer of author's tours Dmitry Kozlov, who became our good friend, who sooo loves nature on trips, and cities much less :) Here he is, in the photo — peering into the distance.
By the way, now Dima is in Kyrgyzstan and will soon organize fresh, interesting trips, including for English-speaking travelers. I'm not hinting at anything, but here is his Instagram :)
To get the best view, you often have to climb higher, everyone knows that? So you should definitely walk not only along the banks, but also along the surrounding hills. Wherever possible, I look for higher observation decks. For example, you can climb the hill where the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory stands, it's nearthe town of Tekapo. The first photo of the post and the photo below are taken from there.
The surroundings of the lake are famous for their magnificent flowering of lupins, but for obvious autumn reasons, we did not find them. We were left with stones, mountains and grass - not bad either. Maybe one day you will find lupins there? :)
It's better to watch photos in high resolution.
Camera: OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo. You can read a short interview with me here.
