Inside the country - Mt. Cook and Lake Tekapo

Despite the heavy farewell to our fabulous wwoofing family, we were also looking forward to continuing our journey. Unfortunately, we couldn't just move on, but we had to start looking for a new job along the way. So, full of motivation, we traveled to the inland of Otago and tried to find work there for 2 long days. But either the season was almost over here (e.g. for apricots and cherries) or the harvest wouldn't start for another 2 weeks (like for apples, but we didn't want to do that anymore). Slightly depressed, we left this dry piece of land and decided to travel for another 1-2 weeks. After a short detour to the east coast to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are round stone balls on the beach where Asians lounge, we made our way to the inland to Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand, and Lake Tekapo, one of the regions of New Zealand that I was most looking forward to. Among other things, because this region is one of the few dark sky sanctuaries in the world and I finally wanted to take a picture of the southern hemisphere's starry sky. But first of all, we hiked to the edge of Mt. Cook through a beautiful valley to a glacier lake with floating icebergs. In the evening, we drove back to a freedom camping site right next to a canal, where Toni, as often, tried to catch a fish. It was already getting dark and I had given up hope that he would come back with a fish when he came around the corner with a salmon! The pride was correspondingly great and we were thrilled with the great dinner (and yes, a few days earlier we shaved Toni's head :D).

The next day we continued to Lake Tekapo. Since there is not much to do here except for a breathtaking landscape with an unnaturally blue lake and an alpine panorama in the background, we spent the afternoon at our campsite by the lake and waited for the night so I could finally take pictures. At 2 o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock woke us up from our sleep and we were actually lucky to find a clear night sky immediately on the first night. Nevertheless, we stumbled around a bit grumpy because of the inhumane time and the icy cold. Later on the computer, however, I found that the effort was more than worth it and I was very proud of my first photos of the starry sky. So, after half an hour, relieved, we crawled back into the car, because the next morning the alarm clock would ring before sunrise, because I absolutely wanted to photograph the "Church of the Good Shepherd" on the edge of the lake in the first daylight. Even more tired than 3 hours ago, we got up and tada - I got some beautiful photos again. After a short breakfast, I wanted to run up a hill on the edge of the lake to see and photograph this great landscape again. Here, too, we were rewarded for our efforts with a great view. Satisfied, we could leave this region and make our way back to the east coast to Christchurch.