It was actually nice to be sleeping back in Mabel (never thought I’d say that) and we both slept really well (nothing to do with the alcohol of course!)

We woke just before 8 and were on the go at 8.45, we had quite a lot of driving ahead of us again.

Our first stop Lake Tekapo, which we arrived at after a 3 hour drive, having driven over the Lindis Pass. The sun was blazing and the temperature around 27 degrees. We walked just over a mile and a half around the lake edge, over the bridge and saw The Church of the Good Shepherd (one of the most photographed buildings in New Zealand) and the dog statue. The colour of the water was unbelievable.

We then had to back track to Lake Pukaki (where the water was as blue as the previous one) where we stopped at an amazing viewpoint (overlooking the lake with views of the snowy peaked mountain where we were heading later) and made our normal sarnies for lunch. 

Our next stop was only 10 minutes up the road and didn’t go to plan at all. We were planning on doing the Kettle Hole track walk, about 4km long which should have taken an hour tops. The car park was empty so we thought fab we’re the only ones doing it. Less than 10 minutes in though, we came across so many cows hanging around the gate which we needed to continue through that we (ok – me) felt we had to turn back and give this one a miss (note from Dave: I thought Tracey was being a bit of a COWard).

So we pressed on towards our campsite, now driving the full length of Lake Pukaki. We had a few photo stops at viewpoints along the way and at Peters Lookout we walked all the way down to the lake edge and back.

At around 5pm we made it to the White Horse Hill Campsite (which is actually in the national park) and found somewhere nice for Mabel. We then went straight out on a 2 mile walk to Kea Point and back where we had a fabulous view of Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand) with the sun on it.

Returning to Mabel it was time for a cold beer from the fridge and a quick read before getting dinner underway and packing the rucksack ready for tomorrow. 

Total distance 315kms (195 miles)