Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki

Sylvain, Janek, and Erika

Rent in Christchurch is outrageous since the 2011 earthquakes, a house like ours is renting for about $600 per week. We opted to take on some tenants for the short term to ease the cost of living so that we could actually afford to do some travelling, which is what we came here to do in the first place. Our first few months had been the fairly routine Monday-Friday grind that we had left in Canada, we needed to change something. Our alternative was to break our lease, which was not up for another nine months, and find a smaller, cheaper residence. So in this way, Janek, Erica and Sylvain entered our lives. Janek, was from Ireland and presently dealing with his own immigration issues trying to get into Australia to be with his girlfriend, and Sylvain and Erica were from France, eventually going the opposite direction to us by seeking residency in Canada, having just moved from there to travel not too long ago. The idea of Sylvain and Erica moving in to save us money, never did come to fruition. We ended up buying their van, some hiking gear and a tripod. What we lost in the desired income, we gained in great company, camera skills, and fond memories.

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Sylvain and Erika were amateur photographers, a little farther down the road to greatness than myself, and they taught me many new tricks of the trade, that I attempted to employ on various outings in and around Christchurch. Sylvain and I braved a cold bitter night to try and catch pictures of the stars during one of the brightest full moon cycles of the year. We failed in star photography, but I did learn to take amazing shots of the moon. Janek, Erika, Sylvain and I would also venture high atop a hill in the Sugar Loaf Scenic Reserve to capture images of Christchurch, and Lyttleton Harbour at sunset, after heavy snow and flooding.

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With as many people living with us as we had, and gas creeping toward $2.26 per litre, it only made sense to do some sightseeing to save on gas costs. And so it was we decided to seek the scenic Lake Tekapo, and Lake Pukaki in the centre of the south island. At the far end of Lake Pukaki lay the epic peaks of Mt. Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. Unfortunately, mother nature, and the general health of the Hartlen family aside from myself delayed this trip one week. The second last weekend in June much of southern New Zealand was witness to the largest dumping of snow in over thirty years. Snow drifts as high as a meter and a half in the Southland. The roads we were to have travelled were essentially closed, and we were hooped. One week later though, it was all systems go, and it turns out the week was well worth the wait as we were lucky to have 15C and sunshine the whole day!

I had first set my sight son Lake Tekapo, and the Church of the Good Samaritan several months previous when I had seen stunning nighttime photos of the Milky Way Galaxy, behind a lakeside mountain backdrop on the internet. Because of the aforementioned full moon, we were never to get a great shot of the stars, nor would we be there late enough in the day, it being almost three hours drive from Christchurch, but the pictures we did get were amazing.

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Apparently, Mt. John is home to a famous observatory for good reason. It is one of the thinnest and clearest parts of the atmosphere, where serious stargazing can be had with the naked eye, and astronomical transcendence can be achieved with a telescope. We spent some time taking in some of the purest whites, and clearest blues I had ever witnessed, both at the church site, and the mountain top. Equally stunning views were available at lake Pukaki about a half hour down the road, with the looming presence of Mt. Cook to put a stunning cap on a magical day of south island winter sightseeing. Because of the recent snowfall, our continued travel plan, heading to the Mt. Cook townsite and glacier fields, was curtailed for the interim, but I knew we would be back, and soon.

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