Lake Tekapo

Blog entry: 15th December 2016

#SouthIsland2016 #SouthIslandNZ #KatsMotorcycleDiaries

I had a pretty good sleep even though the camping ground was on the main road which was pretty busy with trucks travelling through the night. The morning was cool but refreshing & I was keen to head off.

We headed back up SH1, north, for just under an hour to Ashburton for breakfast at Café Time. After breakfast, we visited the Ashburton Museum. It was the first stop that we had made to any of the museums we came across.

I think it was probably my fault that we didn’t make more stops. I must admit that I did find it very difficult to get off the bike, I was enjoying the riding so much that this was all I wanted to do all day long. I wasn’t feeling any stiffness or pains from riding a sports bike.

All our bike friends (including Manny) thought I was a bit crazy riding a sports bike on a road trip. I was told constantly "You’ll feel it in your wrists" or "Are you sure you want to do that, you’ll be riding on your wrists".

After the stop at the museum, we headed south west inland along SH 79 passing through Geraldine & Fairly. Like a lot of the roads we travelled along, it was beautiful riding with no problems with other traffic on the road. There were some bends & curves to enjoy but nothing that got the heart racing with excitement.

From Fairly, we headed further west along SH8 where we had a few climbs as we approached Lake Tekapo. Once we arrived at Lake Tekapo, we found accommodation in the form of a house on a slight hillside so we had a view of the lake. We had been so fortunate with the weather most of the trip & once again we were enjoying a beautiful day.

We both were looking forward to visiting Lake Tekapo given that it was situated in an International Dark Sky Reserve so we thought we would have a beautiful sky fill of stars. I was lead to believe that anywhere in the town would be great for star gazing. If you are planning a trip to Lake Tekapo for star gazing I suggest planning it before arriving in the town as we were not successful with our stargazing which was gazing at the sky from the house deck.

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