Drive up to Lake and Stars

So, I guess I’ll work backwards for the posts from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For now, I feel like writing about today, so that’s what I’ll do.

I spent a leisurely morning with Corina. I polished off another Feijoa, some pavlova and a bowl of Weetbix. We chatted about this and that while watching some American Food Network shows. I guess we mostly ended up chatting about cooking and food. Kind of hard not to when that’s what you’re watching.

You’re probably already wondering who Corina is. Corina and Patrick Futrell (known to me as North and Kat for years now) are a wonderful couple that I’ve gotten to know during my years of playing World of Warcraft. We used to be in the same guild, so we told a lot of “remember when.. or do you remember so-and-so?” type stories over the weekend. Though, currently Corina and I aren’t as involved with the game as we have been in the past. Interestingly enough, Corina’s a Kiwi and Patrick is from the States. Pat is now pretty much committed to living in New Zealand and they have no plans on returning anytime soon. I certainly can’t say that I blame them one bit. Oh, lastly, Patrick’s brother lives in the Seattle area now and I get to hang out with him now and then (HI TREL!).

Anyway, back to the day as I’ll give you more information when I write about the lovely weekend I spent with them. I left their place at around 12 noon and drove over to the City Centre so I could retake some of the photos I loves when my SD card hiccupped. I got some gas and did a bit of grocery shopping before walking down Columbo St to the square. On the way, I called my Mom to wish her a Happy Birthday. Was a bit of a short call. Sorry Mom!

I spent a little over a half hour meandering around the square and the inside of the Cathedral trying to recapture my photos as best I could. Even though the sun wasn’t out today, the lighting inside was still quite nice. It is interesting to me that I still feel a sense of awe and quiet when in a Cathedral. Part of me still thinks about crossing myself and going to go sit in a pew or kneeling by the candles after lighting one in someone’s honour. I guess this is still left over from growing up Catholic. I have to agree with Patrick, that it’s kind of off-putting that this Cathedral directs you through a well stocked gift shop of NZ themed goods before exiting the place.

After the Cathedral, I crossed the square to look at the Simply New Zealand shop to see if there was anything I had to have. There wasn’t. I might be souvenired out at this point. Except that I would definitely like something from Mount Cook, which is where I’ll be tomorrow. I ended up leaving Christchurch a little before 2.

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loneliness after spending several days with warm people and wonderful conversation. Stepping back into being alone isn’t always as easy as I think it’ll be but by the end of the day (now) I’m feeling comfortable with my own thoughts again. Yes, even I, the self-professed loner gets lonely sometimes.

Most of the drive consisted of flat countryside with dark blue mountains in the distance. It wasn’t until about 3:30 where I turned off SH1 that it started getting much more interesting. The drive between Fairlie and Lake Tekapo, especially, was quite beautiful. I reached Lake Tekapo just after the sun set below the mountains. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, when the glacier blue lake promises to be the most stunning. The weather in Christchurch was cloudy but for most of the drive it was clear blue skies. So, I’m hoping that this will hold until tomorrow, especially for the Mount Cook portion of the day.

Before getting to the Tailor-Made Backpackers Hostel, I stopped by the lake’s edge to capture a few photos. I spoke with a professional photographer named Bob who captures images for postcard for a living. He let me look through his camera and I saw how paltry my camera’s view is in comparison. That’s alright. One of these days I’ll learn to use a digital SLR camera. Bob was pretty interested that I was from the States and spoke to me at length about the government and big bank problems. He wanted to know how Seattle is coping with the recession and when the governor elections were. I told him as best as I could but had to admit my ignorance about local politics. It amused me that here I am in a small town in the mountains of New Zealand , talking to a Kiwi and he knows more about the US than I can say for certainty than probably about 99% of Americans know about New Zealand… maybe more. I would have loved to have chatted with him some more, but I didn’t have my hoodie on and the wind was pretty fierce over the lake. Actually, it is in all of Lake Tekapo, as I can hear it blowing pretty hard outside.

For dinner, I went to a place that was recommended by the friendly girl at the reception, Thai Tekapo. She said it was good and that the Pad Thai wasn’t too expensive and she was right. The service was very friendly and the Pad Thai was about $6 cheaper than everything else on the menu. It definitely filled my tummy and I got to eat it with chopsticks. In the US they never serve Thai with chopsticks.

Alright, so now for the best part about Lake Tekapo. I found out that UNESCO is trying to make this area a world heritage site. Why? Because of the night sky. A night sky that is stop-you-in-your-tracks amazing up here. It has been years since I’ve seen the Milky Way and I was positively delighted to see it again. Apparently the Milky Way is brighter in the Southern Hemisphere but either way, it’s gorgeous. Before dinner, I stopped at the i-Site, which I was surprised to still see open after 7pm. They book night time star gazing tours that take you up to the local observatory. Unfortunately, I missed the last English speaking one by 15 mins. Oh well. I didn’t even know that existed. So, I grabbed myself a glow in the dark star chart and after dinner, I drove down to the lake and away from some of the lights. Though, there are barely any street lights to begin with and those that are here are a dull orange colour, to reduce light pollution. I spent most of the time in my car because the wind was blowing cold and I’m not that hardcore. So, I sat in both the passenger’s and driver’s seat (sometimes reclining) while I used the light of my iPod to illuminate the chart. I’m pleased with myself that I was able to make out several constellations. Though, Orion was recognizable to me on the horizon before I got the chart. At least I could pick out one! Now, I’ll always be able to make out Crux - the Southern Cross (another easy one) and its coal sack (dark spot in the Milky Way), Canis Major, Canis Minor, Leo and Centaurus. I saw several others but the only other I’ll mention is Gemini on the horizon close to Orion. All the star gazing made me think of my Grandma and how she would used to point out constellations to me in Culpeper. We had a pretty great night sky up there as well. <3 Sirius the Dog Star! Though, honestly, sometimes the "connect the dots" of constellations really takes some extra imagination.

One more BIG THANKS to Corina, Patrick and Bill for letting me stay with them! <3

Early Morning edit: I completely forgot to mention that I saw 3 falling stars while I was stargazing. Plus, on the drive out of where I was parked, I saw three rabbits.