Doubtful Sound, East Coast and Lake Tekapo

Our second daytrip from Te Anau was a boat cruise around Doubtful Sound. This required one boat to cross a lake, a bus ride through the mountain range and then the three hour boat cruise through Doubtful Sound. Everywhere you looked it was pristine. Take a look at what we saw.

This was the first lake we went over.

This was part of the bus ride through the mountain pass, look familiar to any of you Canadians?

The next few are part of the nature cruise.

Although we spent a night in Dunedin we didn't visit the Otago Peninsula which is supposed to be a special place. We did visit the Cadbury factory for some cheap chocolate. This was the first beach that we stopped at and could walk on along the east coast. It was so warm that Clint could wear his shorts without funny looks!

I was there to catch the kids if they fell! Aren't they cute though?

These Moeraki boulders are on another beach just down the highway. There are about 30 of them and they look like large rock marbles on a sandy beach. This boulder looked like it had run into the cliffs and split apart.

Izzy was tired out after all the running on the beach, so much so that she cuddled with Clint on the walk back to the car.

This is Lake Tekapo, probably one of the most beautiful places we saw. There was a glacier fed lake, mountains all around and perfect clear skies. Our 2 bedroom condo was so nice that I could have lived there for a year!

We started the day with a hike but unfortunately the higher we climbed the snowier and icier the path got so we had to turn back and slip and slide our way down which Miles didn't enjoy, he cried the whole way down!

This was the view from half way up the climb. After our hike we had some Thai food overlooking the lake and then went back to visit the Church of the Good Shepherd seen below.

This church is in the most beautiful spot, not hard to talk to God here! We finished the day at the hot pools which overlook the lake and mountains.
What a great way to end our trip.
We went back to Christchurch to catch our flight home. It was another fabulous trip and took away some of my homesickness since it reminded us so much of B.C. Although coming in July meant being in the snow and cooler temperatures the payoff was no traffic on the highways, especially on the west coast.