Icy waters and Starry Skies | New Zealand Road Trip

We were on the road again first thing the following day. After my incident with the horse the night before, it was decided that the driving would all fall to Esme. One of my eyes was still significantly puffy and it did impact the quality of breadth of my vision. 

We were headed to Mount Cook National Park for an afternoon of walking and swimming. As we drove along the stunning Lake Pukaki, we pulled over at a lookout point to admire the view. The lake was beautiful and blue, framed by the ever breathtaking snow capped mountains. Staring into the clear water, Esme and I knew we had to have our first dip there. The water was cool, delightfully refreshing and, I told myself, surely soothing for my puffy face. 

We got dressed and drove further into the national park to get closer to the icy views. We did several of the short walking tracks which offered us various views of the almost fluorescent glacier water. At the top of the Tasman Glacier viewpoint, we could see the shiny texture of the ice, glimmering at the water’s edge. Sitting on rocks in the sunshine, we stared out at the views in silence, each of us content just being quiet in a beautiful place. On our way back down, we diverted to see the blue lakes – green bodies of water near the glacier. The waters used to be blue, when fed by the glacier, but now they are green with rainwater. 

The sun was warm and we’d just climbed up and down a hundred or so stairs, so Esme and I decided to cool off in the rainwater! 

That evening, we made the drive to Tekapo, where we found a free camp on the other side of the town. We ate a snacky dinner of olives, salad, tortilla chips, dips, bread, cheese, and wine, and braved the cool night air to stare at the stars awhile before we went to bed. Tekapo is a dark sky reserve, with low light pollution and beautiful clear views of the stars. The longer we looked and our eyes adjusted, the more stars appeared. I felt deeply moved by being able to see such a beautiful sight, so grateful to know that these stars are always there, but sad that I couldn’t see them this clearly every night.

The next morning, we went into the town to explore the lakeside. We walked along the water to the Church of the Good Shepherd, a beautiful stone church that looks out onto the water. We wandered closer to the water and found small patches of lupins blooming in various colours.

We spent the following couple of hours by and in the water. So close to a glacier meant the water was super chilly again, but it was so clear and refreshing. The most difficult part of navigating it was trying not to slip on the stones! After some time swimming, sketching, and relaxing, we had to spend some more time driving. Our time in New Zealand was approaching its end, and we needed to get to Christchurch to drop off the van the following afternoon.