Waking up on the rocky shore of Lake Pukaki was a real change of pace. Also waking up knowing an amazing open door outhouse that looked out onto the mountains over the lake was exciting - I like the simple things in life. We took our time in the morning enjoying the surrounding mountains and drinking coffee out on the rocks while Emily made breakfast sandwiches. I learned that if a smoke alarm goes off, I am very useless in making it stop. The fact that my all gray pajama attire blended right in with the rocks made for some great photos. I attempted to be helpful by washing the dishes off in the lake - the freezing cold lake - bringing with me only one paper towel. Like I said, I am not domestic or helpful.
We enjoyed our breakfast and then made our way to the more popular lake just east of us, Lake Tekapo. Even though we had just eaten and had coffee, we strolled into a cute coffee shop/bakery called Greedy Cow for some flat whites to start the day off right in true New Zealand fashion. Typically brewed black coffee is not really the cool thing to do in New Zealand so I stuck with the status quo. We then wandered next door to another bakery called Doughbough for a salmon, cream cheese and caper bagel - again, even though we had just eaten.
We continued to wander down the small strip of shops and restaurant picking up essentials like gloves and warmer socks and eventually made it to the Lake Tekapo Foot Bridge for some viewing and pictures before the main adventure of the day.
Our plan was to hop on the Mount John Walkway and see where the trail led. We did the trail counter clockwise so we started near Tekapo Springs and took the easy walk along the shore of Lake Tekapo providing mirror views of the mountains off the lake and plenty of great opportunity for Andrew and his drone to follow us on our hike. Once we started our ascent, we were led up to an amazing viewpoint with a bench that looked out over the lake and also Lake Alexandrina. We stopped for photos and a quick beer break and then continued on what we could see would be a long way up.
At this point we sort of lost the hiking trail but there is also a road that winds all the way up the the Mt. John Observatory so we just walked on the road likely adding some serious switchback distance. I did a lot of backwards walking because the views behind me were unreal. At one point we tried to hitchhike to the top and three European guys hopped out of their Jucy Van and in broken english said "We want to help but we only have room for 3!" We thanked them for the offer and continued trekking.
If you happen to be a runner, you know the feel of runner's high. I would say when hiking up hills that there is also such thing as hikers high. The incline is steep but you just keep doing high knees like a running back and continue up the path.
We could see what looked like an oversized milk jug at the top and started seeing signs for a cafe. Drawing closer, indeed their was not only a cafe but a great observation deck that made the climb very well worth it. The cafe was called the Astro Cafe and claimed to be "Possibly the best place on the globe for a cafe". They had small bites and coffee but saving our appetite for dinner, we just hung out and took some photos. My favorite thing was the mailbox which had a sign indicating it was the highest mailbox on the Southern Hemisphere. I am single-handedly keeping the postcard industry afloat so I have a true appreciation for mailboxes.
The way down was a lot faster than the way up - figures. The path back to the RV was an entirely new landscape through the woods and pines. Lots of the trees and foliage looked to have suffered some type of plague so Emily being the environmentalist she is spent the majority of the walk down hypothesizing the different ailments that could have caused the damage. Since Emily and I both have knees that are less than 100%, we took up the rear and let the boys run ahead. Once we arrived back at the RV, they had already started happy hour.
Once we decided it was time for dinner, we made our way over to the Lake Tekapo strip where after several tries and failures of trying to get into restaurants, we finally snuck into Reflections where we had an amazing meal. We started off with some marinated olives and polenta fries and then I had the lamb shank because that's the New Zealand way! The wine in New Zealand is also very good so we split a bottle or two.
Towards the end of our meal we started making conversation with one of our waiters who happened to be from Holland. He was curious about our backgrounds and travels and invited us to hang out next door at the Lake Tekapo Tavern. We made our way over to a very crowded establishment to find out the All Blacks were playing a match against the Aussie's in rugby hence the crowds. Y'all - rugby is no joke. It's like football - minus the pads, minus the helmet and plus about 50 pounds of leg muscles and 5 inch inseams. Watching rugby is similar to watching refrigerators run really fast carrying a ball only to be hit by another refrigerator. Needless to say, the sport is impressive.
We grabbed a few drinks and waited for Pepijn and his girlfriend Charlotte to get off work. We grabbed a table and Pepijn ordered some chips (fries) and hung out for a while. If you know me well, you know I am not a nighttime person - basically when 10PM hits (or earlier) you've lost all chance of me being social. I did my best to hang in there and just entertain myself with the TV but Charlotte came up with my new favorite excuse when I'm in that mood. She said "You are very mysterious". We all got a good laugh out of it and now whenever I am tired and quiet my excuse is that I'm just being mysterious (also known as asleep with my eyes open).
Once it got late, we made our way back down the road to Lake Pukaki to a similar camp sight on the water -- no magical outhouse but the views were nothing to complain about.
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