Lake Tekapo And Ascent Of Mt. St. John

We proceeded on to the hamlet of Lake Tekapo, located at the south end of the immense and beautiful alpine lake, and spent the night at the holiday park there (Kiwi for campground). Unless you're a boatie, there is little to do here except walk the two block tourist area, rest, reorganize, do the wash, shower, and climb nearby Mt. St. John, all of which we did. Then you drive on toward Wanaka and Queenstown or up to Mt. Cook, which we also did. Interestingly, we stayed at this same holiday park in Lake Tekapo in 2014, almost the same day of the year, and it was 30 degrees F that night (in a tent!), with a gale the next morning. This time it was sunny and warm, temps in the 70s. Mt. St. John is a 300m climb with an university observatory and cafe on the summit.

Mt. St. John's, observatories, etc.

Rock love seat on the trail up Mt. St. John's

A bit of the observatory campus with the bigger Southern Alps
in the background

Looking up the expanse of Lake Tekapo

The village of Lake Tekapo

Your are here

Another big lake on the other side, looking toward Mt. Cook

Us, there

After the descent, and some provisioning at the excellent Four Square in Lake
Tekapo, we drove 15+k up the corrugated gravel east-side road--memories of
Namibia!--and free-camped by the lake

Thus

And enjoyed a great Kiwi sunset

It was a moon-less and nearly cloud-less night, and we stayed up well past our
usual bed-time to see the southern sky; alas, the photo does not at all convey what
we saw, pretty much the best night sky ever, for us