Day 10: The Long Haul

Everyone acted like we were crazy for trying to drive from Akaroa to Queenstown but we made great time. We got on the road and not to far in we saw a grocery store and stopped for supplies. We marched on to a small town Geraldine were we looked around and bought a nice print of a local artist's painting of a Tui (NZ bird) sitting on part of a Maori war canoe. Chris had said earlier that day that he missed the sound of the Tui in the morning.Then we went my Lake Tekapo which is turquoise, more turquoise than even the Caribbean. It has to do with some sediment from a glacier. We stopped and had a picnic lunch of tuna and cheese from Barry's Bay Cheese Farm. Not far from Lake Tekapo is Lake Pukaki which is an even brighter turquoise. I can't wait for everyone to see the pictures. I could live there and just look out the window all day. Chris and I got out of the car to walk down and touch the water and some ocean birds (smaller than sea gulls) got rilled up and started swooping down at us. One came within 5 inches of Chris's head! We had to move down the beach a little. From Lake Pukaki is the vantage point to Mount Cook, unfortunately it was cloudy and you could only see the foot of the mountains. We chose not to make the trek down the road to the main vantage point because we would have only seen more clouds.
We got into Queenstown about 6 o'clock. We stopped at the bridge were the first commercial Bungee jump site happened in 1987. I think Chris may try it tomorrow. I don't like to be upside down.
Our motel is not a place I would normally stay but it is an efficiency with a little kitchen and has an awesome view of the lake here. We got our bearings around town last night before going to Freiya's Indian Restaurant and going to bed.