Arthur‘s Pass und Lake Tekapo

After we were in Christchurch, we continued on towards the Southern Alps after an overnight stay. This region is known to many as “Rohan” from the Lord of the Rings films.

We went on a hike at the rock formations at Castle Hill and the Devil's Punchbowl waterfall (lots of elevation gain 😅).

Afterwards we spent the night in a beautiful, windy place right by the lake.

On March 13th our journey continued south towards Peel Forest.

We stopped off in the town of Geraldine to stock up on supplies and tried the delicious chutneys at Barker's Café.

In the afternoon we took a hike from our DOC campsite to a tree that is over 1000 years old.

The campsite is on the route of Te Araroa, the approximately 3000km long hiking trail from the northern to the southern tip of New Zealand, and we met two women who walk it. It was very interesting to hear from them about it.

The next morning we set off towards Lake Tekapo. This is located in the mountains near Mount Cook.

We went for a walk by the turquoise blue lake, looked at the picturesque church “Church of the Good Shepard” and took a bath in the hot springs above the lake. Henry really enjoyed the warm water 💦

In the evening Moritz set out again to photograph the beautiful starry sky.

The next day we drove up the mountain above Lake Tekapo and looked at everything again from above.

We then continued to Aoraki/Mount Cook. The well-known Hooker Valley Track starts at our campsite (White Horse Hill) with three large suspension bridges and a view of Mt. Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand).

We took turns on the hike because it was a little longer and we didn't want to take Henry with us.

We had actually planned to spend two nights at Mount Cook. But since it got a bit too cold there at night, we decided to go back to the coast a day earlier. We went through the Waitaki Valley to Oamaru.

There are 7 large hydroelectric power plants on the Waitaki River, each with 15MW, which together supply around 51,000 New Zealand households.

On the way we also looked at the Elephant Rocks.na