I did a little more digging around in my archives of past trips to inspire some wanderlust in myself during this busy period at work, and I pulled out these photos of my road trip with P to Lake Tekapo in New Zealand which never fail to make me want to go somewhere right now, even though they are from a trip way back in 2005!
A TRIP OF MANY FIRSTS
Visiting Christchurch and the South Island in New Zealand back in 2005 was another of these landmark trips for me where I took the plane on my own for the first time – P (who pops up mostly in my diving posts) was studying in New Zealand’s south island and I made plans to visit her while she was there. It was my first road trip without the family, and also the first time P and I travelled together; that trip made us realize that we could tolerate each other and have been firm friends since, even if we hardly meet up these days due to our respective crazy workloads.
I wasn’t quite into journalling back then so I only have the photos to jog my memory – though this trip did spawn some of my better travel stories, like how P and I killed 3 kamikaze country birds in our drive, how I mysteriously lost my camera on the last day of the trip (thankfully I had backed up my pix) and how we were totally freaked out about bungee jumping before but SO PUMPED after we were done we wanted to go again (story for another time!).
LAKE TEKAPO
We rented a car and drove from Christchurch down south towards Dunedin. One of the places we stopped at along the way was this particularly scenic spot in the center of the South Island called Lake Tekapo.
A picture of me by P sitting by the lake
As you can see, the weather was absolutely spectacular that day – Look at those brilliant colours, I swear that I didn’t tweak any of these pictures at all! Even with my amateur photo taking skills, it was pretty impossible to take a bad shot.
Mountains, Gandalf! That’s never gonna get old :P
I remember the cold clear water of the lake, practically transparent but surprisingly chilly when I stuck my toes in. It was just so clean you felt like you could drink it
New Zealand Lake Tekapo Clear Water
But mostly I remember going into this little church called the Church of the Good Shepherd. It’s very small, a few rows of pews in this little stone building, but it has the most amazing view. I daresay that if I ever had religious inclinations, I would like to frequent a church like this one – small but amazing.
The tiny church
I’m not a religious person, but I’d consider praying to that view
We didn’t do much here, mostly admire the lake, check out the church and frolic amongst the flowers.
The champion frolicker
A closer look at the lupins in bloom – they are super pretty
New Zealand is a great place to go for those nature lovers – I’ve actually been here three times before with my family but I would go back there again any time.
Read about the time I lost my camera in New Zealand, and that memorable time with the Kamikaze birds.