Day 12 Mount Cook-Lake Tekapo

We headed down the hillside from our farmstay toward Mount Cook, New Zealand's tallest. It was a sunny cool day, perfect for a ride. We headed up the coast before turning inland. We had a pleasant winding ride along the Waikati River. We soon came to the dams at Lake Waitaki and Lake Aviemore and began to see the beautiful unique blue green water of the lakes in this region. The color is caused by "rock flour" which comes from the grinding of rocks as glaciers move down the mountainand sunlight.

It was a fine day and the roads were bendy but not twisty. We got to Omarama, got lunch and gassed up. We headed out on State Highway 8 unfortunately I took us in the wrong direction. It took us 65 kilometers (40 miles) before I realized my error. It was such a nice ride back and forth over Lindis pass that we didn't mind the detour. We gassed up again in Omarama and headed to Mount Cook.

It was a wonderfully scenic ride as we moved toward the mountains along the shore of Lake Pukaki on one side and the Ben Ohau Range on the other. The road was bendy with sweeping curves as we were funnelled ever and ever closer to New Zealands highest peaks. Mount Cook is 3754 meters high and it's neighbor Mount Seftton 3157. The glacier packed peaks got bigger and bigger till we reached the village and Alpine center. We took some photos and headed back toward our lodging for the night at Lake Tekapo.

The ride to Lake Tekapo was as lovely as the ride to Mount Cook, especially as we rounded the end of Lake Pukaki and looked back at the mountain range. It wasn't a long ride to Lake Tekapo, but it was a tough one. The wind was gusting to at least 40 mph and not always from the same direction. It was one of those "if it doesn't kill me I'll be a better rider" rides. Lake Tekapo is a pretty little village on the end of the Lake with it's own great view to the Two Thumb Range. Before we got to our lodging we met a fellow biker who told us to make sure we stopped by "The Church of the Good Shepherd' at lakeside. We saw it and the dog statue close by honoring the Collie's contribution to the successful herding of sheep in the region. It was quite impressive in such a beautiful spot.

We finally reached our lodging for the night, Three Rivers Lodge, which to our delight turned out to be a almost new, nicely turned out, two bedroom guest house. We were greeted by our host, Oliver, and directed to the restaurants in town. We got cleaned up and walked 20 min. back into town. As we passed over a bridge we looked below to where a young man was fishing. We could see the fish from above and were able to tell him where the big brown trout below were located.

When we arrived in town we found a pub, ordered some beers and I let David beat me at pool since I had earlier whupped his butt. There were only a few restaurant choices and we opted for Pepe's Pizza and Pasta. We were feeling our beers when we arrived and encountered our bike acquaintance from earlier, who asked us to join his group. Greg Oz and his lovely partner of 26 years, Katrena run Road Hawk NZ Harley Tours LTD, and are touring with their clients from Athens,GA, Wayne and Ellie. We happily joined them and had a splendid time, talking Harley, New Zealand, the touring business and music. We wore them out and they left before us.

David and I have been trying to find the most beautiful girl in NZ and we thought maybe we had found her in our bartender. For further study we decided to have an after dinner drink. Turns out Jensine is not a Kiwi but a Canadian. Liz, the other young lady working the bar was not a Kiwi either, but Welsh. When we got ready to pay our bill we found that Greg had bought us dinner. Just another example of the kind of Kiwi generosity we have experienced. This though was over the top. Greg knows touring and Harleys and shared some of his thoughts regarding the possibility of David and I creating a rental touring business for the gulf coast. Greg and Katrena sometimes tour in the U.S. (they've even been to Seaside in the past year) and I hope we can hook up next time they do. We walked back to our abode for the nigh under a sky filled with more stars than I've ever seen at one time.