Well if I were to give you advice it would be this: visit Lake Tekapo. Don’t stay there.
The drive from Dunedin to the lake was of course, stunning. Picturesque landscapes flying by the window. We stopped at another lake and had some incredible fresh salmon sashimi from the farm up the road. We also bought a smoked fillet but unfortunately that got left behind in the hotel fridge. Hope the next people were able to enjoy it.
We stayed at the Lake Tekapo Scenic Resort. Nothing too exciting but gorgeous views from the balcony.
A walk around the lake and ‘town’ provided short lived entertainment. A few tourist shops with souvenirs and a couple of restaurants of which the one we were keen on was sadly under construction.
Back at the hotel we attempted to think of ways to kill time. Most included alcohol. The star gazing at the observatory was $135 and only got you a behind the scenes tour as it was so cloudy. We couldn’t go to the hot pools as Ru and Dave hadn’t bought swimwear.
We decided to do a pub crawl! Great idea. Except there was really only one pub. With a forklift parked out the front may I add – you knew you’re in outback NZ when you see that.
Dave smoked a cigar then we tried the next place which was a restaurant which happened to sell alcohol. Two cocktails later we thought we should eat as it would be just our luck that everything would close up very early.
We settled for Japanese (yep again, I love it!) and I had an udon soup, sharing a few plates with Ru and Dave and downing the sweet Ume Shu – plum wine.
So while beautiful, it is a great place to have a real on the drive somewhere. Unless of course it’s summer and you have a jet ski or boat… Would have loved to go fishing there!
