Lake Tekapo & Mt. Cook

On Monday evening we returned from a great weekend with Rusty & Wal at Lake Tekapo. Tekapo is in the Southern Alps up near Mt. Cook. We left midday on Friday and met up in the evening (we drove our car separately because we didn't all fit in their station wagon).

On our way out of Waimate we followed signs to the Waimate Sheepdog Trials. We've been wanting to see some for months but had pretty much given up hope until we saw the signs! We watched them bring sheep down from a hill, through some gates, and into a pen. The first shepherds who trained dogs to do all the sheep herding work for them must've been thrilled to pieces. It was awesome to watch the dogs work. Unfortunately, our camera decided to stop working for some unknown reason while we were at the sheepdog trials. This was a huge bummer since we were headed to one of the most spectacular places in New Zealand.

Thankfully, Rusty and Wal let us take some pictures on their camera so the images are courtesy of them until further notice. Rusty's parents also spent the weekend at Lake Tekapo with us and it was lovely to meet them. We passed the evenings playing Chinese Checkers and Monopoloy (the British version).

On Saturday we did some Geocaching around Tekapo with Rusty, Ami, and Shannah. We released a Travel Bug whose mission is to make its way to Chicago to be reunited with us. Then we went with Wal and Rusty's dad to see Mt. Cook. At 3700+ meters it is New Zealand's highest mountain. It was a beautifully clear day and the views of Mt. Cook were spectacular. Just as we were arriving at the Mt. Cook villiage we saw a NZ falcon dive-bombing a harrier! This was our first falcon sighting.

On Sunday we did more Geocaches in the area. DOC has a black stilt breeding center near Lake Pukaki (next to Lake Tekapo) that we planned to visit on our way back to Waimate on Monday. We called at 3 pm on Sunday to inquire about bookings and learned that the last tour of the season (i.e. until October or so) was THAT DAY at 4:30! So we hopped in the car and hurried off to make our bookings.

The Black Stilt is an extremely rare bird. There are about 100 birds in the wild and the population is intensively monitored. They suffered extensive habit loss during river modification for hydroelectricity. Wide, braided rivers favored by the black stilts have been altered by dams and canals unsuitable for their lifestyle. We got to see these birds up close at the breeding center. We were hoping to see them in the wild too but we had no such luck. We did manage to see a different rare bird, the Australasian creseted grebe. They can't walk on land and spend their entire lives in water or in flight.

On Monday we finished the rest of the Geocaches in the area and came back to Waimate via some cool limestone rock outcrops. We stopped at a place called Elephant Rocks. It is probably the coolest natural playground I've ever seen, and we tried really hard to make all of our friends appear spontaneously so that we could play capture the flag or ghost in the graveyard or something. It didn't work so we just ran around and climbed on rocks.

In the evening we stopped at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony to watch the penguins come in for the night. We saw about 60 penguins in all. They gather together offshore and then come to shore in groups of 6-20. Then they wander up to their nests for the night. We watched two starting to collect nesting material. They are the world's smallest penguin. Tiny little things!

Just so you know, we're planning to go quite a few posts during these last two weeks in NZ. Check often!

Carrie