Cook Village Mount
Lake Tekapo
It’s time to hit the road, and what strikingly flat roads they are. We are heading west on the Inland Scenic Route 72 through the pastoral perfection that is the Canterbury Plains and it is as if we have somehow stumbled into the English countryside; parallel hedges and rows of pines fence off fields of sunflowers, wheat and grazing dairy cows like a patchwork quilt of earthy browns and greens. We drive through one idyllic small town after another, and although this is not the ‘postcard’ New Zealand we are used to seeing, it has a countryside charm we all adore.
In less than four hours we arrive. Looking as if someone covered the bottom half of a canvas in highlighter blue, Lake Tekapo needs no Instagram filter and, with the backdrop of the Southern Alps, it is simply otherworldly. The lake gets its milky turquoise colour from the fine rock flour, ground by glaciers, suspended in the water. We all run to the shore, positively giddy at the sight, and dip our hands in, almost expecting them to surface the same hue as one of James Cameron’s Avatars. The Church of the Good Shepherd sits on the waterfront, the altar window framing a perfect view and providing a photo hotspot for visitors.
We stay at The Chalet Boutique Motel, enjoying gorgeous views of the lake. Lake Tekapo is also part of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, making it the perfect spot for stargazing, and we decide to enjoy a night out on a Mt John Observatory Tour with Earth & Sky to discover the nocturnal world of an astronomer, peer through the powerful telescopes with our own eyes and contemplate the mysteries of the universe. Our drive the following day is more of a jaunt, just one hour to Mount Cook Village. Nestled between the glistening Lake Pukaki and the sky-scraping mountains of Aoraki Mount Cook National Park, the village is truly a ‘village’, with a permanent population of only 250 people.
Although it encompasses 23 peaks that are more than 3000 metres high and includes New Zealand’s tallest mountain, the park is very accessible and a variety of walks are kidfriendly. We decide to hike the three-hour Hooker Valley Track, which leads us along a mostly flat path through meadows of wildflowers (our favourite: the buttercup), over rushing rivers on swinging suspension bridges, and ends with a grand vista of a glacier lake.
We had pre-booked into The Hermitage Hotel for the evening and spend the night chatting on our private balconies and basking in the spectacular views of the surrounding snow- capped alps and alpine forests.