Day 7:
Good morning!
Morning view with morning coffee!
Ice on the floor? Can you imagine how cold it is last night?
Breakfast before we go!
Address: Ben Ohau 7999, New Zealand
Nothing special here to be honest, but since it's along the way, we stop by to have a look.
Off we go again!
The view along the way is so surreal!
After a 35mins drive, we reached our next destination!
We are now at the Hooker Valley and yes, we need to track a little bit to the Hooker Valley!
Looking good before the trekking starts!
Looks like some fairy tale entrance, isn't it?
Let's start the tracking!
Finally reached the Lake Muller Lookout after a not so bad tracking, about 20 to 30mins walk!
We will continue to walk over to that suspension bridge after a short rest here.
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Now we are walking towards the suspension bridge, and they call it the First Swing Bridge.
There is quite an amount of people on the bridge now and since there is a maximum load of 20 people, we decided to take photo outside of the bridge first.
Lesser people now so we 'dare' to stand on the bridge now.
Below the bridge is the Hooker River and which the water flow from the Lake Muller!
The colour of the Hooker River looks milky blue colour, making a great contrast with the sky and the mountain filled with snow behind!
This is how we look like after all the walking! Haha! Back to Lake Muller Lookout to rest before we walk back to the car park again!
Ok ready to walk back!
Saw an empty road near the car park so took a quick jump shot!
Wanted to have lunch at The Old Mountaineers Cafe but unfortunately, it's not open so the only place to eat will be this Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre.
Operating Hours: 8.30am to 8pm (Monday to Sunday)
The Cafe & Bar are located at level 2.
There is a gallery and also souvenir shop downstairs.
Love this drink!
Not many choices but food overall are good.
After lunch, continue to our next destination!
Yes... We are going to track again! Today is all about leg work!
We are tracking towards the Tasman Glacier View!
By the way, I wonder what bird is that?
Beside trekking to the Tasman Glacier, you can track to the Tasman Lake Jetty and Tasman River too. They are different direction, so you can finish one and continue the other one once you are back down.
But of course, we will be doing only one, which is the Tasman Glacier!
Halfway through and look how high did we walk! This trekking is more difficult than the one at Hooker Valley because at Tasman Glacier, it's all stairs!
Before we reach the Tasman Glacier, we reach the Blue Lake first.
But... the Blue Lake is not blue?
Haha! Anyway, there is an explanation why Blue Lake are green.
Welfie with the Blue Lake and continue our journey to Tasman Glacier!
And tada! We have reached the Tasman Glacier!
So beautiful! For this view, it's worth trekking up!
The view is so beautiful in all angles!
Gotten someone to help us to take group photo again!
No bad, can still tell us to take photo in different way!
(Pssst... always ask Asian to help you to take picture)
Walking back down again!
Now you know why we only choose to track to Tasman Glacier only?
Before we go back to our Airbnb, we went to Four Square supermarket again to grab our ingredients for tonight's dinner!
Too much trekking today and 3 of them just fall asleep while watching TV!
We really crave for spicy food so much that when we saw the Shin Raman, we just have to buy it even though it's expensive, but I think this might be the cheapest meal we had in New Zealand!
Oh ya, the roasted chicken is actually quite cheap.
Sun is setting and time to prepare dinner!
Cooking the mushroom dish again!
Dinner time! 2 ramen is still in the mid of cooking but to prevent the noodle becoming soggy, 2 of us have to start eating first.
Today's share of my star gazing!
Day 8:
Good morning!
Checking out our biggest and best Airbnb!
And we woke up with a frozen car!
Bye to our house for the last 2 nights!
Heading to another town today, after a 15mins drive along the way, we stop by at the Kettlehole Viewpoint, overlooking the Lake Pukaki.
Address: Pukaki 7999, New Zealand
Continue driving for the next 30mins.
And here we are at Lake Tekapo!
We will be staying here for the next 2 nights!
Address: Lake Tekapo 7999, New Zealand
Walking around the lake before the restaurant that we wanted to have lunch opens.
Found a heart shape rock!
At the Lake Tekapo Bridge.
Too much cloud today so all the picture looks a little gloomy!
Time for lunch!
Our lunch place today!
And yes! It's Asian food again!
Actually, at this location, there isn't much choice of food, and the review (by Asian) of this Kohan Japanese Restaurant seems to be quite good.
Operating Hours: 11.30am - 2pm, 5.30pm - 8pm (Friday to Wednesday)
Closed (Thursday)
Looks legit.
The menu.
As someone born and raised in 'The Most Expensive Country', I'm still shock when I see the price on the menu!
I don't think I have eaten any Japanese bento in Singapore that cost this much!
But anyway, since we travel to other countries to enjoy, we shall forget the price and enjoy ourselves!
(work harder when we are back to work then...)
I think I will order any apple with any berries juice here! All of them taste good!
Our food is here!
The food is legit Japanese food, and it taste good.
Still not yet time to check in our hotel, so we went to the Tekapo Spring to enjoy the hot spring pool!
Operating Hour: 10am - 8pm (Monday to Sunday)
Website: https://tekaposprings.co.nz
Purchasing our tickets.
Staff will help to put on our waterproof "ticket" on our wrist.
The entry tickets.
Oh ya, they do not provide free towels, so remember to bring one if not you gonna pay 5NZD (=SGD$4.10) to rent one from them, like us.
There is this free storage area for you to keep your belongings.
And also, there are paid locker to keep your valuable items.
Time to enjoy! Starting with the 35-degree pool.
And it started to snow! So beautiful even though it only lasts a few mins.
Then we proceed to the 37-degree pool next.
We then went to the kid's pool to have a look too but not a place for us!
And we have decided 37-degree is the best for this weather!
Wash up and saw this swimsuit dryer! Quite cool!
Off we go! After soaking and it's a miracle that we don't even feel cold at all now!
Time to check in our hotel at Peppers Bluewater Resort Lake Tekapo.
Resort lobby with great view!
Tada!
Bedroom 1.
Bedroom 2 with view.
The view outside the bedroom.
Bathroom.
Let's proceed to the upper level!
Upper level is the recreation room!
Kitchen.
Living room.
Another living room?
The balcony.
Comes with a real fireplace!
Feeling comfortable already.
After a short rest, headed to the Four Square supermarket to get our ingredient for tonight!
Operating Hours: 8am - 8pm (Monday to Sunday)
Nearby the supermarket, at a carpark, there is two food carts here!
Both food carts did not interest us though because it's either burger or fried food.
Operating Hours: Depends on individual cart
The food cart is beside Lake Tekapo too.
Tonight's dinner!
Dinner time!
Spend the rest of the night chit chatting, watch TV and good night!
Day 9:
Good morning!
Made myself a cup of orange expresso to start of the day!
First stop of the day, The Church of the Good Shepherd!
Operating Hours: 9am - 5pm (Monday to Sunday)
This is one of the iconic places to visit when in Lake Tekapo mainly because this church is build using stones!
It's not open so we just take pictures of the inside through the window.
Off to the next destination.
Was supposed to see the Lupin Flower-sea but it's not in the right season but we manage to see a herd of horses!
We are curious about the horses, so we get down the car and have a closer look of them!
Apparently, this is a horse ranch and most likely the horses here are for horse riding to tour around the lake area.
This is Monty (I'm talking about the horse)!
I didn't see any name for this horse, but Monty is definitely more curious about human and more friendly! Haha!
We are heading to the Mount John Summit, and we need to pay 8NZD (=SGD$6.60) per vehicle to enter. Please note that they only accept card payment.
And this is the Mount John Summit!
Address: Lake Tekapo 7999, New Zealand
Looking over the Lake Tekapo.
Again, jumpshot at the car park! Haha! The sky in New Zealand is really good for jump shot, isn't it?
The view from the other side at Mount John Summit.
The University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory is also located here but we didn't try to go in.
Heading back down! The view looks stunning even though it is taken at a random road, isn't it?!
And it's lunch time! We are having Japanese ramen today! The restaurant is located as the same area as Kohan, I assume many Asian here therefore there is many Asian restaurant here.
FYI, we do eat western food, but sometimes we just miss home a little, so we need some Asian food as comfort food.
Operating Hours: 12pm - 8.45pm (Monday to Sunday)
The menu.
OMG they have laksa! But I'm not trusting any laksa that is outside Singapore and Malaysia, and of course we are not paying 30NZD (=SGD$24.80) for a bowl of laksa
The have my favorite Most drink here!
Our ramen is here!
Ok, not too bad, taste legit Japanese ramen.
Went to Four Square supermarket to buy ingredient again.
By the way, I love this garlic & sea salt butter! Save all the trouble in chopping garlic to cook together with butter!
I don't drink but I love the packaging!
The packaging is so cute!
Coffee break at The Greedy Cow!
Operating Hours: 7.30am - 4pm (Monday to Sunday)
Nothing much to do around this area already so headed back to the resort to rest for the day!
Ingredient for tonight's dinner!
(again, 1 chilli and 1 garlic! Haha!)
Sunset reflection on the snow mountain is so beautiful!
Dinner time!
I manage to convince them to accompany me to Lake Tekapo to watch the stars!
It's super cold tonight so we just sit inside the car boot to watch!
Star gazing is one of the popular activities in Lake Tekapo, so I don't want to miss the opportunity and no regrets embracing the cold!
Back home and end the day with an ice cream cone!
(as if we did not freeze ourselves at Lake Tekapo just now? Haha!)
Last night at Tekapo and good night!
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