First Camping Trip of 2007!

We have finally got round to going camping! Dan and I went down to Lake Tekapo to meet Rob who had been tootling round the South Island on the magic bus for the previous 10 days. We were somewhat hesitant due to the dubious and not hopeful weather forecast, but as in England, who trusts a weather forecast!

The journey was depressing........grey skies, rain, wind.......the highlight was the first cadbury cream egg of the year (Christmas is in the past and so yes its gearing up for Easter!?!) and of course some lovely time with Dan (driving!) To be honest we barely said word we were both so tired!!!!

10k out of Tekapo and the clouds cleared and blue skies showed up, Thank you God! And Tekapo was stunning, we had been meaning to go and have a proper stay in Tekapo since popping through New Year last year and this in fact was absolutely perfect. So we picked up Rob (plus extra backpackers who Rob had met along the way! Classic backpacker quote, Oh my word a car, I've not been in a car in months!) checked in and picked our spot and set up camp!

Happy Campers!

We were quite active all in all. We walked up Mount John which was right next to the campsite and had a coffee on top. As we found out, Rob likes breaks, just lucky that there is a cafe at the top of the hill as part of the observatory complex. Again we bumped into more Magic bus guys which was great and really lovely to meet Rob's new friends. Rob then had a near miss with a mallowpuff that had had a brush with a peanut at some point in with its life and then realised that he obviously had something inside that NEEDED to get out!

From the top

"So what is there in a mallowpuff?"

So the descent was much faster particularly for Rob! It really was real camping and we spent the evening playing jenga and chess by candle and torchlight! Rob was very keen to have a second game of chess after getting beaten, though good effort Rob you kept the game going way longer than me!

Day two, we went onwards to Mt Cook Village to have a look around and to do the Hooker Valley walk and all I have to say is awesome, I'll let the photos say the rest. It was just awesome!

The Summit of Mt Cook from the Hooker Lake

Mount Cook and the Hooker Valley

The Hooker Glacier

The Lads

And just to prove I was there!

So we returned to the campsite very satisfied, very tired and totally toasted! It was great! Now it is back to work! Great to get out of town and apart from the tent next doors car alarm going off 5 times in the night a very restful time! A holiday! Where will we go next?