Tuesday 27th November – Steampunks, boulders and stars?

Becks found a friend

Apart from needing to wear a few layers to keep warm the accommodation was very comfortable! We had our first Bookme.com booking of the trip this morning at the Steampunk museum, a complete steal at only $5 each!

This meant we had time to stroll around Oamaru which is a really interesting little town with stunning limestone buildings (below). We made friends with the ginger cat from the local pub who followed us in to the museum and stayed with us for the majority of our tour! 

 

Becks found another friend!

I think it’s fair to say that the Steampunk museum is what you make it. If you go with a healthy amount of imagination and curiosity then you will enjoy it! 

One of our favourite items was presented as a door into the ‘portal’. Once inside it was clear that we were encased in a small mirrored cubicle surrounded in lightbulbs and LEDs. A light show commenced and, despite your mind telling you it was all done with mirrors, the effect was quite dramatic – it was like being in the matrix! We enjoyed the light show three times!

Us in 'the portal'

We couldn’t afford to hang around in Oamaru for too long. We were heading another half hour south to visit the Moeraki boulders, a very bizarre phenomenon that I’m sure an intelligent geologist could explain to you. As for me, I can’t help with why these large spherical rocks with crystalline centres exist in this location, but it didn’t stop me taking lots of photos and pretending to climb out of a ‘human egg’!  The challenge was to get a decent pic without 50 other tourists photobombing us…

Back on the road, this time heading north and inland on our way to Lake Tekapo. Those of you with excellent memories, and potentially too much time on your hands, may realise that Simon and I had been here at the beginning of the year. But who wouldn’t want to go stargazing in a hot spa twice in their lifetime?!  We stopped along the route to have a very pleasant picnic lunch alongside a field of very friendly and inquisitive young cows:

Then we were delayed further as we got our first glimpses of turquoise crystal-clear lakes tucked amongst the mountains.  The East coast had been very overcast that morning, so to see the lakes under such brilliant blue skies was a massive relief to us. Looked like the stargazing was on after all!

The shores of lake Pukaki

Clear blue skies over Lake Tekapo

The Church of the good Shepherd

We arrived at Lake Tekapo in plenty of time to visit the picturesque church of the good shepherd before checking into our campsite and making dinner. 

The biggest challenge of the day was to come… staying awake until 1130pm for our late-night plans. We played a lot of cards.

We took the short walk to the stargazing centre, by now dubious of the conditions. When we arrived we could see the group preceding ours sat inside wearing virtual reality (VR) headsets. The staff had set up telescopes in the vague hope that a patch of clear sky would appear, but they explained that the mountains had been holding the clouds back during the day. With the fall of temperature at nightfall the clouds had come spilling over the edge and filled the Tekapo valley with a thick blanket. So, stargazing was impossible. But, thanks to technology, we took a virtual tour of the solar system.

Becky and I find it hard to remember the facts we were told. There is a slim chance that we may have dozed off behind our VR headsets for a moment or two?! It was very relaxing. Almost as relaxing as the hot spa that followed! By the time we had got changed and made it back to the camper it was gone 2am. Bit of a late one......