Camper Van Day - 1 Auckland - Christchurch - Lake Tekapo - Mount Cook

The day started at 3.30 AM @ home in Auckland.Left home at 5.00 AM for the Christchurch and reached Christchurch at 8.10 AM. Flight was uneventful. After landing called the Camper van shuttle couple of times for pickup.

We reached the place, where we would pick up the camper van. Even though I had done online check-in, we had to wait for 2 hours. I just wanted to leave ASAP. Then around 10.30 AM we did the payment and we got the keys for our MAUI van, which will be our home for next 10 days.

Then we left for Mount Cook. The total distance was 320 KM. In between we wanted to pick few things but we did not find a supermarket next to motorway so we kept on moving as we had a 5.00 PM booking for Glacier Explorer boat ride.

At 11.30 we had to stop at a place for a small brunch as this was our first meal of the day. Then we reached Lake Tekapo at 2.00 PM. Lake was blue. It was more of a painting. I have never seen such a blue water colour. We took few photos at the historical church. We have been to lake Tekapo earlier but it was a cloudy day so we never got to see this blue colour.

We left Lake Tekapo, half heartedly. Another 45 KM down we got another blue lake, Lake Pukaki. We could see the majestic Mount Cook from here.Along the banks of Lake Pukaki we reached Mount Cool Village at 4.00 PM.

At 4.30 PM we took a bus, which took us near to Tasman Glacier. This trip was thro' Glacier Explorer. http://www.glacierexplorers.co.nz/  Then we had to walk for 20 minutes to reach the jetty. From there it was 45 minutes of  boat ride. We touched ice bergs, which had fallen of the Glacier. This is the largest glacier in New Zealand 27 KM long. The guide cum boat captain gave us insight in to glacier formation & facts. We saw snow covered mountains. But Mount Cook was the tallest of all. Around Mount cook lots of Glaciers are there. Later it was time for us to get back to the bus to come back.

From there we reached our first night camping ground at Glenn Tanner. We had our dinner and Preeti went to sleep. I went out again for doing some more photography. At 10.30 PM, I wanted to sleep after long tiring amazing first day of our camper van trip. In one word today was heaven....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aoraki_/_Mount_Cook