Day 1: Christchurch to Lake Ohau

  Lake Ohau, New Zealand
Monday, April 9, 2007

Day 1: My excursion started off with me hopping a train to the airport and getting on the three-hour flight to Christchurch. I got there late at night on April 8 (actually, early morning the 9th) and checked into my hostel with a bunch of others on the trip. I woke up early in the morning amidst strangers, packed up, and went downstairs for breakfast and departure. I got on the bus and we were off.
As we got about an hour and a half out of Christchurch, the mountains started to spring up on all sides! They kept appearing and each one higher and more majestic than the last! The bus stopped in a few towns along the way until be got to Lake Tekapo. The water truly is an aqua-blue because the sediment from the many Glaciers in NZ. Just in the distance past Lake Tekapo, you could see Mt. Cook (or as the Maori call it, "Aoraki- Cloud Piercer), the highest mountain in the South Island. After many photos, the trip continued around another Lake (Pukaki) to Mt. Cook village where we hiked around in the shadows of mighty Mt. Cook. It was beautiful and breathtaking.
After a bit, we pilled back onto the bus, and made our way to our night lodgings at Lake Ohau (O-how) Lodge. The food was great and the views even better. The stay there wasn't long, though. The bus was loaded again at 7 a.m. and we were on the road to Fiord land to catch the boat.