LINKS:
Queenstown
Glenorchy
Remarkables drive
Invercargill
Stewart Island
Dunedin
Taeiri Gorge
Oamaru
Lake Tekapo
Akaroa
Our hotel in Lake Tekapo (below) has been first class. We're regretting it's just been an overnight stop.
Before we set out for Akaroa, I wanted to check out a small, “historic” church at Lake Tekapo. Me and 50 other people. And the angle for photography wasn’t good – I really should have checked it out when we arrived, when the afternoon sun was on its western side. But I did my best. It really was picturesque, on a flat little peninsula jutting out into the lake.
The foundation stone for the first church in the district was laid by the Duke of Gloucester in 1935, with instructions given to the builders that the surrounding landscape was not to be disturbed at all.
This is the photo (a stock image from Getty Images) I really wanted to get, but obviously didn't!:
So, feeling a little photographically dissatisfied, we headed north east to a peninsula said to be equally, if not more picturesque - Banks Peninsula, south east of Christchurch, where we are staying in a cottage at Akaroa.
NZ has a relatively high road toll, and given that the roads are tight and winding, it’s not surprising. Even roads with quite steep drop-offs are lucky to have safety barricades – traffic has to be content with only occasional lengths of Armco. Mostly, it’s just lengths of wire held up by what look like sticks, or perhaps horizontal planks of weatherboard.
Hardly reassuring.
However, we’ve seen only one what looked to be serious accident here, and it was on a surprisingly flat and straight bit of road this afternoon. The lack of risk probably went to the driver’s head, as the car ended up head first into a tree.
Dave has been here before, in the 2010 Silver Fern Rally with Mark. He said some of the roads could be quite frightening and some competitors were very alarmed by the conditions. He described some of the bends in the roads as “fresh air corners” – fresh air being all that could be seen.