26^th December, 2015

Early start – up at 5am. The birds had already started singing and first light was well underway. We quickly drove to Lake Wanaka and set up our tripods at #thatwanakatree and click, click, clicked away. Once again, not a cloud in sight – was was going to be 31 degree's and a picture perfect summers day.

We had the tree all to ourselves for a good 20 mins, then the hoards of tourists started to arrive (way too late for sunrise of course – obviously only hobby photogs!) LOL Ooh I think we are turning into photography snobs! Lol

We were back in our camp spot plugged back into power by 6.25am! Lol The caravan park was still fast sleep, so we made the most of it and had quiet showers in the great shower block. We updated blogs and facebook and worked out our itinerary for the next couple of days.

Hayfever had set in BIG time and no amount of Claratyne was working. So off to the chemist I went and DEMANDED DRUGS!!!!  I bought up half the shop – if the nasal spray, eye drops & new drugs don't work – noting will! Lol

We picked up more supplies at the Wanaka supermarket, before heading to…. Come on, you know where… PATAGONIA Chocolates – for more ice-cream!! YAY I had the same – Tramatina & Banana Split & Steve had Vanilla Bean & Hokey Pokey – yum yum yum

We ate it looking out across Lake Wanaka. There was some parasailing going on – looked great against the blue lake and sky.

So ended our very quick trip to Wanaka….what do we think? Well, we think it is the “Banff” of the South Island ...it is GORGEOUS – we both want to move here!!!! A local said the average house price is 1 million – everyone wants to live here, but no one can afford to! Lol Best we start saving our money…. I wonder how much Corian I could sell here? lol

Now we are heading to Peter's Pass for a quick photo opportunity looking at Mt Cook, and then we'll head straight to The Church of the Good Shephard at Lake Tekapo. So much to see, so little time. There's bound to be no clouds tonight at the church as its another hot fine sunny day – fingers crossed there is!!!

The road to Tekapo is long...and very straight. NZ roads are either ultra windy, or ultra straight – it is quite funny.

Best thing is…. LUPINS – everywhere are LUPINS!!! Soooooo pretty, in their dark purples, pinks, violets & whites! Just gorgeous. I made Steve pull over a few times so I could take some photos! You just can't guarantee they'll be where we'll stop tonight, so best to make the most of it whilst we see them!

As we got closer to Twizel, we saw this amazing blue lake – I mean BLUE – turquoise. So we had to stop…. Only to see only a few km's down the road it is part of the Mount Cook lake – Pukaki Lake. 

WOW – its enormous – and BLUE! We stopped to take photos of Mount Cook off in the distance. Not the most idyllic time being 1pm with the 30 degree sun blasting down on us, but eh – we're here and we are taking photos.

Steve then realised we had gone past the turnoff to Mount Cook where he wanted to look at Peter's Lookout – great “road” shot. Boy is it busy here! Coach bus's full of tourists stopping to take a quick photo of Mount Cook. The get out, grab their selfie stick...take a photo...get back in the bus and leave….then the next bus rocks up. Its like they have 10mins each and it is well timed as the car park is not very big. Throw in a heap of motorhomes and cars and its bedlam.

We decided as it was quite early, that we'd take a quick drive up to Mount Cook to take a look. The closer we got the more excited we became – this is just like Canada! 

 We stopped to take photos – we checked out Hooker Pass and where that treck was. Not today though – too many tourists and we had not done any research to do it this trip...but next trip definitely!

We headed back to Peter's Pass. We got a great spot with a view to Mount Cook from the back window. We are currently sipping Bailey's on ice out of wine glasses, watching the lake, and the madness of the tourist coaches come and go.

We have decided to stay here for sunset, to grab some funky long shutter shots of Peter's Pass (as there are no clouds, so no good sunset will be had at the Church of the Good Shephard). We will camp over the other side of the lake so we have Mount Cook off in the distance again for sunrise...and then we'll head off to Lake Tekapo late morning.

Hannes - this image is for you buddy....we thought you had been here!!  :)

Check out the view of sunset - this is out of the small happy snap camera - not half bad eh!!

So we still get to do a sunrise and a sunset of the Church, and we get these “freebies” here – YAY!!

ha ha ha – well, we stayed for sunset – it was nice, no clouds, so not perfect. I wanted to stay longer to try and get some car light trails heading up to Mt Cook…. The road went from being flat out with tourists all day to no body being around, so I didn't get the shot I wanted, (head lights & tail lights in the one image) - but eh - you get that.

We started to drive out at 10.30/11pm and we decided to just drive straight to Lake Tekapo. We pulled into the free RV park which was about 400m away from the Church and slept for a few hours.