Mackenzie Country – Lake Tekapo

Leaving the Canterbury Plains behind us, the road took us up and down hills and the snow dusted Southern Alps beckoned in the distance.  Pulling in at a road side parking area alongside an assortment of cars and tour buses where everyone had stopped to take photos, we got chatting to several tourists from Kentucky.  They were interested in the fact that we were towing our caravans.  “We call them trailers at home”, they said, but we already knew that.

  Southern Alps with a dusting of snow

Next stop was the tiny settlement of Burkes Pass,  at the entrance to the Mackenzie Country, on our way to Lake Tekapo, named after   Michael Burke who discovered this passageway in 1855.  This was an alternative route to the Mackenzie Pass which the notorious sheep stealer, James Mackenzie had used to take his ill gotten sheep into the Otago goldfields.  I called in to see the pretty little St Patricks church which was built in 1871.

St Patricks Church, Burkes Pass

Coffee Caravan and old Austen car outside Burkes Pass pub

Lake Tekapo looked a picture with it’s distinctive turquoise blue colouration, caused by fine particles of powdered rock held in suspension in these glacier melt waters.  The two popular tourists spots are on the lake edge and tourists were snapping photos like crazy.  The little stone Church of the Good Shepherd, built in 1935 is a real draw card and the most favoured spot to take photos is looking out through the church windows at the mountain view. 

That famous view

Church of the Good Shepherd

The nearby statue of a sheep dog was sculptured by Innes Elliot and cast in bronze.  It is a tribute to all the working dogs that helped to develop the Mackenzie Country.  It is not, as many believe, a statue of sheep rustler Mackenzie’s dog called Friday.

Statue in honour of the sheepdog

With all this touristy stuff done it was time to think about where to stay for the night.  There were several free “freedom camp” spots available and we decided on Pattersons Ponds, on Tekapo Canal Road.  Coming across a  “Road Closed” sign we wondered if we were in the right place, but Geoff’s Sat Nav told us to continue on.  We crossed a bridge over the canal, and there below us down a very steep rocky track was Pattersons Ponds.  Deciding to play it safe, we parked up on high ground.

  Beside the Tekapo Canal at Pattersons Ponds

What a glorious spot to park up for the night, in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Mackenzie Country.  Once the sun started to go down we could feel the temperatures dropping sharply.  We will be out once it gets dark to do some star gazing in those clear skies.