Lake Tekapo - Day 2

Twilight @ Dawn

Mt John Observatory @ Lake Tekapo

Mount John was chosen for building this observatory center due to its large number of clear nights, its stable and transparent atmosphere and incredibly dark sky. Local district council develop plans to protect its night sky and by-laws regulating the type and amount of outdoor lightning that could be used.

There are stargazing tours operate each night at Mount John so no private access into the area at night.

We started our good morning at Astro Cafe, on top of Mount John...

Great food to accompany this ever amazing views....

Today's sunny day shines brightly, bringing out the opalescent blue lake so heavenly! If you have seen opal you know what I'm saying =)

There's a small track around Mount John, overlooking Lake Tekapo town. There is actually a track from the town to Mount John..

Walking around the beautiful Lake Tekapo

No wonder people like this place so much.. There were two couples taking pre-wedding pictures here... So lovely, with the most natural setting, they just need to see the view to smile!

Church of Good Shepherd...

Sunset, soft pastel colours =)

Stargazing time~~ We did not take a tour to Mount John, but looked for the darkest, highest road side we could (around Mount John) and enjoyed the stargazing... Even before it gets completely dark we can see few very bright stars shining. Among them is Jupiter. 

OMG We have never seen so many stars before!!! It is just amazing.. And so easily we could see meteorites blazing through twice!

Star Trail@ Lake Tekapo

We have only you in our eyes~~~ You you you all the stars~~~ Unforgettable.. Lake Tekapo really has its charm to people and please stay for the star gazing experience!

Moon setting.. Amazing right.. How many times in our life do we see the moon rise and set... Peter got up middle of the night and saw this amazing view..

Lake Gunn Nature Walk, Lake Marian & Humbolt Falls

A beautiful morning! We started our day with an easy walk from our campsite at Cascade Creek, the Lake gunn nature walk. It says 45 min loop, but took us like 1.5 hrs! Its an ancient red beech tree forest, many birds flying around, with keas high up above the canopy.

Looks like an old tomato old man...

Next on, we went for the Lake Marian 3 hr return walk. Quite exhaustive with the climb up.. Passing few rock falls area which demolish some part of the forest. But the view of Marian Lake with surrounding mountains is totally worth it!

Marian Falls

Lake Marian*****

A must go in Fiordland... Such pristine lake... When there is no wind :p we spent 3 hours here just picnicking and relaxing.. The most beautiful lake so far, or maybe second best after Lake Manapouri. Hard to tell, Lake Manapouri is so massive, and this Lake Marian is small, like the perfect size with the mountains around.

Fun time at Lake Marian

Humbolt Falls***

Humbolt Falls 30min return, but we manage to make it in 15 min because we had to get out of the Lower Hollyford road before 6pm! That's because we spent half a day in Marian Lake and forgot other point of interest to see!

Beautiful Lupins at Mackay Creek DOC Camp

We stayed the night at Mackay creek doc campsite, $6 pp. Our most recommended DOC campsite along the Milford Road! Absolutely beautiful views of the Eglinton valley with snow capped mountains. And the pretty Lupins flowers that grows along the creek. So many colours! In fact they are not so beneficial to the plants and animals as they are too competitive!

Our last night in Milford Sound, see you again in future!

GoGoGo...! One Tree Hill

We bought a Toyota Estima Lucida year 1994 after a week searching for a good one from gumtree and backpackersboard. We also went to the Backpackers Car Market in the city. Finally found this through gumtree. Can actually say that we are renting the car, because we have a buyback option with the seller who is a trader.

We bought it at $3500, and after 3.5 months he will buy it back for $2500. He actually quote us $4500 if we were going to buy it but since we were gonna do the buyback, he sold at $3500. This guy Nigel in Auckland actually has his own website, www.optionsbackpacker.co.nz. The online forums say its harder to sell the vans once summer is over, we aren't pretty sure if mid Jan will still be able to sell the van easily so we do not want to take the risk of losing more money, so we thought to agree with the buyback option too. And it would take at least a week to sell the van too.. Consider paying $1000 for renting a van is quite alright for 3 months..

The car still looks alright and functioning well, from what we see. Fingers crossed, it will last us at least this short trip in NZ =)

With a built in bed and plenty of storage space. Hope we can save some dollars on accommodation!

First day of official travelling in NZ with our Kiwi Zai.. (the van =P) We went to the One Tree Hill Park in Auckland... There are so many sheep and little lamies here... in the garden! Not a farm... Haha cute..

Auckland City view

One Tree Hill is a nice place to spend a nice walk and especially now during spring, we get to see the Cherry Blossoms! So pretty...

Hide and seek

 but the tree just too slim for us to hide.

After a good walk at the garden, we went to Hamilton, just another 'bigger' city in NZ, about an hour drive from Auckland...  We spend our night at the Hamilton City Holiday Park near city paying $32 for unpowered site for 2 ppl. There's no way to find free camping in cities or towns of NZ unless there are designated free camp spots offered by the local council or Department of Conservation (DOC) =)

Celebrating our first night on our own in NZ =)

Hamilton city