april 25 - day 4 - star gazing at lake tekapo
on the 10th of april we commenced our road trip. the night before we slept in my cousin's house in the area of lincoln. her house is a rented single-story bungalow with two rooms and a toilet and a bath. very cute. there is a some sort of an attic room, but from the room you can peer down and see the living room below. the night we slept there was very cold - i had to use the toilet in the middle of the night and came running back up, shivering for a good 5 minutes under the blanket.
it has to be said that we met a very different climate from gold coast when we exited the christchurch airport.
my cousin intended to send us to the city to pick up our rented car - but her honda stream is not enough space for us, our many bags(including food which piled up after she took us to pack and save the night before), and her family. she had to ask for help from her friend which resulted in us having to leave her house quite late(noon as opposed to 10am). since it took some time for her friend to get ready danish - her eldest requested to show us a stream/duck pond/garden combo nearby. so we trooped out - cold morning! (me and my friends were excited at the smoke that came out of our mouth whenever we spoke, a running joke was talking about something then stopping suddenly to blow hard), went down the road (very very clean neighbourhood) and came upon the stream and ducks. it was so cantik and near and nature-y. i could live like this.
finally we managed to be off into the city to pick up the car rental. wanis' friend - k.mas also had family who came over, but theirs were not a too happy tale. the intended destination of their holiday was actually to go to umrah - but the agent dissappeared along with their money. so theirs was an ad-hoc decision to come to new zealand. among them were k.mas's eldery parents who were impressively still strong for travelling adventures!
and then finally we keyed in our destination into the garmin and started off, leaving christchurch heading to lake tekapo. the drive towards it was one of the most beautiful road i've travelled, you see never seen before blue rivers, mountains, mountain ranges, beautiful trees, farms, fernleaf cows, sheep, sheep, sheep everywhere like ants... we shouted everytime encountering something. mcm kg. heh. i'm still thinking about it... one of my favorite part of this trip is travelling on that road towards the southern alps.
we stopped in a cute town called geraldine.
lake tekapo was one of the most beautiful body of water ever - the water was turqoise and the whole scene was like a painting. it was seriously unbelievably gorgeous.
lake tekapo has a small town facing the lake. for the night we settled in tailor-made backpackers. we had a room with 4 beds and a mattress, the toilets and a bath were separated. toilets were roomy and pleasant with a sink inside.
we went out to discover what could be done at night, but it was not much. there was a hot-spring spa and a skating rink, and a tour to see the stars from an observatory up on mt... john? unfortunately the tour costs 80dollars so we decided no. later we learned that lake tekapo was one of the best place in new zealand to see stars. (all of new zealand can see stars clearly. too awesome). dinner was had in the common kitchen, and after walking back to our chalet we discovered some magic.
the magic was the night sky was the best view of the night i have had in my entire life. you know when you go to the planetarium and sit in the domed-hall for the star show? it was exactly like that, only free, without jean-luc piccard's narration and you see everything with your naked eye. i try to come up with words to explain how magical and wonderful and beautiful this view is but they would and could never be enough. it was like, the more stars you think you manage to see, the more stars appear for you to gaze at. unfortunately i have never been an expert to spot a constellation or distinguish a particular star or a planet. that night was truly, like the song, "berjuta bintang di angkasa..." (which masyoo sang in fits of our giggles).
the magic didn't even end there. when i spotted the first one i doubted myself; i thought i must have been mistaken, could it have been something else? or was it even possible to see that? when the second one streaked by and all three of us gasped then i knew for sure: I HAVE SEEN A FREAKING SHOOTING STAR. AND ANOTHER ONE.
and then we spotted the next 5. in the span of 15 minutes. some were long, some very brief. we wanted to wait until the 10th before going back inside, but we were actually already freezing.
i think we could have waited. it was worth it.