Trouble at the lake
Tekapo has lifted its game to become a slick South Island destination. But has something been lost in the lake town’s transition from humble roadstop to high-value tourist hub? asks Adam Dudding.
The bus chugged up the Mt John road at dusk. The headlights were switched off to help prepare the passengers’ eyes for the imminent star-gazing, and the songs coming through the stereo were also getting us in the mood: a playlist that started with Fly Me to the Moon, Rocket Man and Man in the Moon, before moving on to other astronomically pertinent obscurities, including a terrible Stevie Wonder song called Saturn.
We were in Tekapo in the Mackenzie Country, home to some of the least light-polluted skies in the Southern Hemisphere, and although I could already see a few million more stars than I’d ever see at home in Auckland, simply by looking up, we were about to see many more again, with the help of some serious telescopes, during a twohour ‘‘twilight tour’’.
The tour was excellent: superfriendly staff at the Earth and Sky offices in the Tekapo township handed out polar-explorer furlined jackets and red-light torches (white ruins night vision), before the drive to the observatory. There we were entertained and enlightened by a small, enthusiastic crew who led us around the giant telescopes and the cluttered offices of the resident astronomers who are hunting for planets beyond our solar system.
Our guides in the lovely cafe gave us an impressive AV presentation about stars and stuff and handed out brownies and hot chocolate to ward off the extraordinarily cold night air (and this was early January – the height of summer).
We saw the far-away Magellanic Clouds and a nebula, and the quite-close International Space Station, and lots of constellations. We were taught how to navigate by the stars (well, kind of), and were in equal parts enthused and baffled by what we learned about exoplanets, dark matter and gravitational microlensing.
It was a slick, high-quality tourist experience, and not cheap: $150 a head and $85 for children. But the bus was packed, mostly with tourists from abroad, and I got the impression every one of them was a happy customer as the bus trundled back down the hill to the sound of Bowie’s Space Oddity.
Earth and Sky isn’t the only option if you’re willing to spend large in this little town. Tekapo Helicopters offers extraordinary scenic flights around the Mt Cook region, including a snowy glacier landing.
Entrance to the heated pools and waterslides at Tekapo Springs is very affordable, but you can also splash out at the day spa or sign up for its astronomy package, which involves stargazing with the help of telescopes and while floating in a hot pool (though not at the same time). In winter, there’s skiing at the nearby Roundhill field.
In other words, Tekapo is no longer just a wee high-country village with a nice lake and a few private holiday homes, where drivers would stop for a ‘‘pie and a p...’’ halfway between Christchurch and Queenstown.
In a few short years it has become a major waypoint on the international tourist trail, especially for the growing middleclass Chinese market.
Visitor numbers to the wider Mackenzie region have doubled since 2012, with guest nights increasing 20 per cent in the past year alone – and much of that growth is in Tekapo.
The busiest season is December to February, and there’s another winter peak in July-September.
Some tourists still only come for 10 minutes, tumbling out of air-conditioned coaches for obligatory photos of the Church of the Good Shepherd, by Lake Tekapo’s edge, and the nearby bronze statue of a collie sheepdog.
But others are staying longer. They marvel at the clear skies, or lounge about, or board a chopper, or try a paddleboard on the lake, or use the town as a base for trekking and horseriding.
There are plans afoot for up to three new hotels and some relandscaping of the main village. There’s a spanking new Four Square supermarket that has the best lake views you’ve ever seen in a supermarket.
Presumably, some visitors are still drawn by Tekapo’s quiet and serenity, but there’s less of that than there used to be, because Tekapo is experiencing some growing pains.
Perhaps the most vivid symbol of this is the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Its vicar, Andrew McDonald, says 20 years ago the church’s doors were unlocked 24/7, and visitors to Tekapo could drop in any time ‘‘and have a spontaneous experience’’.
Of late, though, the crush of visitors has led the church to lock the doors overnight and employ guides to remind camera-wielding tourists not to intrude mid-service (or mid-wedding). They’ve just built a fence, and when there’s a funeral, says McDonald, ‘‘we get the road closed off’’ to keep things STUFF FRASER GUNN seemly.
My family and I were in Tekapo for just a couple of nights, but thanks to the tourist board we were able to do the observatory visit, a scenic chopper tour and an afternoon at the pools.
We also squeezed in some cheap and free stuff – strolls by the lake; coffees in the ritzy cafes that probably used to be teashops; and, of course, taking photos of the picturesque church and collie.
Yet when we popped down to do so in the afternoon, the church carpark was indeed chocka with cars and buses, and the church was besieged. Fortunately, by dusk the crowds had moved on and my son was able to get the human-free footage he wanted for his You Tube video of our fortnight in the South Island.
McDonald has been told images of the church have gone viral in China. Apparently, on one ‘‘must-see’’ list, the Good Shepherd is ranked No. 7, right alongside the Taj Mahal.
He still wants people to drop by church – ‘‘we love people coming in and sitting there’’ – and the door-person isn’t there to scare anyone off, but rather ‘‘to help people enjoy the environment in a tranquil way’’. There are also imminent plans to move the carpark and return the existing one to nature.
The boom has been tough, says McDonald, for those locals who resent the town’s new busy-ness, or have been forced to open up rooms as bed-and-breakfast as living costs have risen.
On the other hand, Tekapo has become much more cosmopolitan. There are young people from France, or Taiwan or wherever, who’ve turned up and found work and stayed for years. ‘‘It’s made the town interesting. It’s a global village.’’
(Also, the new Four Square is so good that McDonald, who lives in nearby Fairlie, now comes in to Tekapo to do his grocery shopping.)
Over at Tekapo Springs, general manager Anton Wilke
FACT FILE
Tekapo activities ● Earth and Sky. Classy astronomical tours, complete with polar jackets and a free torch. earthandsky.co.nz ● Tekapo Helicopters. Stunning scenic flights with a range of routes, including glacier landings and views of the Mackenzie Basin and Mt Cook National Park. tekapohelicopters.co.nz ● Tekapo Springs. Pools, spa, star-gazing, slides – and in winter there’s an iceskating rink. tekaposprings.co.nz ● Roundhill Ski Area. roundhill.co.nz Around Tekapo ● Walking and hiking: bit.ly/ 2rQynRl ● Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park: bit.ly/2Dk3ne5 ● High Country Salmon Farm highcountrysalmon.co.nz ● Mackenzie Region tourism: mackenzienz.com sees more of the bright side of the boom.
‘‘There’s a big future,’’ says Wilke. ‘‘We’ll see expansion in retail, in facilities for locals, and in housing for visitors and locals.’’
He says central government is putting up the money to relocate the carpark, which is only right, given the Church of the Good Shepherd is ‘‘the Eiffel Tower of Tekapo’’.
Wilke says although wealthy tourists are well catered for, there’s still plenty for the budget traveller in Tekapo, and international visitors aren’t pricing out the New Zealand market.
‘‘More than 50 per cent of the visitors to Tekapo Springs are Kiwis, and 30 per cent of our business is from Christchurch. Tekapo still has a lot of private holiday homes and families. It’s a nice blend of international and domestic.’’
Tekapo is going through something rather like what happened to Queenstown 35 years ago and in Wanaka 20 years ago, says Wilke, ‘‘and Lake Tekapo is still affordable compared to them’’.
Whether the locals (and the tourists) want Tekapo to be the next Wanaka or Queenstown is moot, but either way, Wilke reckons the next few years will be great.
McDonald has one more point to make. Sure, Tekapo is changing fast, and that has its pros and its cons, but the Mackenzie Region is pretty big, ‘‘and you don’t have to go too far off the beaten track to find somewhere that really is untouched by tourism’’.
The other day, when Tekapo was heaving, the vicar was up at nearby Lake Alexandrina for a barbecue, ‘‘and we were the only people there’’. ● Tekapo activities and accommodation with Lake Tekapo Holiday Homes were supplied to the writer courtesy of ChristchurchNZ (Mackenzie Region).