Shades of Blue

Friday was our last day together and it was once again spent mostly on the bus.  As we headed out of Mt. Cook we still couldn't actually see the top of the mountain; as if to placate us we were instead rewarded with a rainbow.  We traveled, once again, along Lake Pukaki which was as beautiful as ever.

Our main objective was returning to Christchurch in time for anyone who had a flight out that night, so our only really tourist stop was at Lake Tekapo.  Oddly enough the town and the lake are both named "Lake Tekapo".  As with Lake Pukaki, this one also owes its magnificent color to the suspended 'rock flour' in the water.  It is the middle-child, in terms of size, of the three lakes in the Mackenzie Country (Pukaki being the largest).  There are two well-known statues in town, which I dutifully photographed for you all:

"This monument was erected by the runholders of the Mackenzie County and those who also appreciate the value of the collie dog, without the help of which the grazing of this mountain country would be impossible."

Eleven Himalayan tahr, one of the world's premier game animals, were introduced into New Zealand in the early 1900's to complement the deer species that had already been established tin induce tourism.  Now classified as 'vulnerable' on the list of endangered species, New Zealand has the only substantial herd of wild tahr outside their native India and Nepal.  It is also the only country where they can be hunted in a free-range natural alpine environment.

Ok, for full disclosure, those two statues are not the reason people visit Lake Tekapo (the actual lake nor the town).  They visit because of a tiny, now famous, building: Church of the Good Shepherd.
If you search Google images for photos of this church, you will not be disappointed - since it's still in the dark sky reserve there are some amazing photographs taken at night.

Built in 1935 it was the first church built in the Mackenzie Basin and is still in use as a place of worship today.  They do not allow photographs to be taken inside the church, but the window above the altar has a top-notch view.  The gentleman on greeting duty gave me some cool advice about a place to visit at my house sitting job in Hawera, there's an old lost highway that travels through a town that has declared its independence...it sounded quite intriguing so I made a note in my phone to check it out.

We arrived back in Christchurch and said our goodbyes; only four of us (including me) were continuing on to Abel Tasman.  Telli gave us the scoop on our next guide, as best he could, and told us we would have two more people joining our tour tomorrow.  Week one in the books, week two on the way.