Day 7: Wanaka to Christchurch Via Mt John

We set off at 10am, as anticipated, having enjoyed a sleep-in (well, it was 8:15, not 6:45 that we got up). Breakfast and packing took us through to 10. I also found out why the internet was so awful - the area's 3G tower atop the Treble Cone skifield fell over (functionally, if not literally). Therefore everyone was using the wifi system, which collapsed under the traffic. You'd think that it you build a critical bit of infrastructure at the top of a mountain that gets lots of snow, you'd design it so it copes with lots of snow. Ah, well.

We left Wanaka, heading south, because that's what you do when you want to go north-east. In fact, it's what you do when you want to go around, rather than over a bunch of mountains. South to Tarras (three shops might make it one up from a locality, but I don't think it quite gets to village), and the up over the Lindis Pass.

The Lindis Pass tops out at 965m, about the height of Mt Macedon at its summit. Except the Pass is the lowest point between a bunch of pointy snowy mountains, and so it feels very low by comparison. We didn't stop for a photo, which was silly, but never mind.

We did stop in Omarama for petrol and cuppas, and then went on to Tekapo. We passed across the bottom of Lake Pukaki, with Mt Cook at the far end towering over all. Again, stupidly, we didn't take any photos. So here's one someone else took.

We passed the turnoff to Mt John Observatory, and went on to Tekapo for lunch, arriving around 12:30pm. We randomly picked one of the various eateries in the main strip (the first one as you come into town), and had a very pleasant lunch. I had a veal stew with mash (v good), JD had an excellent burger, Ky a BLT focaccia and Jos a venison pie - the boys had chips with each of theirs.

Back to Mt John, and up the steep (private) road to the summit. Mt John is a lump of solid rock in the middle of a flat plain surrounded by snowy mountains. The glaciers that carved out this landscape couldn't wear down everything, despite their best efforts. (It also confirmed my hunch that the huge canals that feed the irrigation and hydro power systems had the sides built up because they couldn't feasibly dig down - the bedrock is too hard. It's also why there aren't that many trees about the place.)

The view from Mt John was spectacular - Mt Cook was mostly hidden behind other mountains, but the peak could be seen sticking out over the top. It overlooks the pale, steely-grey, turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo, and the rest of the landscape, the horizon formed by a ring of snow-capped mountains. This particular geography is one of the reasons why Mt John is so good for astronomy - the mountainous rim keeps most of the clouds at bay, and the air is clear and light pollution minimal.

We got the tour, which showed us some of the telescopes and explained some the history. There was a very old astrograph (a camera, one of the first used to map the Southern skies. In one of the domes was a 16" Meade LX200. Normally we'd be able to see Canopus even in the daytime, but there was a veil of high cloud preventing that. This is the scope they use for the night tours.

We also got to see the MOA, even though they were working on repairing one of the sensors. This is the one with which they have found twenty-something extra-solar planets, including one in May this year. They've mainly been looking in the Milky Way, including successfully finding some planets around Alpha Centauri (including one of the most Earth-like planets found to date, possibly having liquid water and an atmosphere).

Back down the mountain, we got another round of cuppas and picked up a DVD with some gorgeous photos of the night sky. We finally left Tekapo around 3:20pm, and then drove solidly towards Christchurch (with a brief stop in Ashburton for a loo run). Ashburton was also where we encountered our first traffic light for the week.

We made it to our motel just on six, and after unloading the car, we then headed out to my aunt and uncle's place for dinner. We had a delightful dinner and conversation, got up to date with a smattering of local news and the developing fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. After having only our own company for the past week, and no news (as the kids insisted on watching the Sky channels all week - mostly kids' ones, but also Discovery channel and the History channel, but certainly no news programs).

We saw the quake damage at their place, or at least a bit of it - bits of their house are trying to make a run for it, and the foundations for some bits of the house are barely good for decoration - they are certainly not functional. A number of the stone retaining walls facing Hackthorne Road showed some damage. For all that, Cashmere didn't suffer as much as many parts of town.

We'll see a bit more tomorrow when we head out to Sumner (one of the harder hit areas) to visit my cousin, who is not only recovering from the earthquakes, but also from recent brain surgery to remove the last bits of a brain tumour (discovered around the time of the September quakes).