We left Christchurch on June 20th and headed towards Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. Still very flat on the way out of town, we stopped a few times on the way to try to find some other place to stay and work. It didn't work out that time but we still had some nice scenery on the way. It got colder and colder, especially where we decided to stop, in Lake Tekapo. The fog settled all around the area and we didn't even get a chance to take a look at the beautiful spot. We parked the van in a big parking, next to a bar and a few shops. Surprisingly, we found a nice piece of lamb for 5$ and cooked a good meal inside the van.
After a relatively decent night of sleep, we woke up with frost on the ground and trees. The van almost didn't start but we managed to get out of there after a few tries. Still foggy, we stopped many times to take unusual pictures of the frosted landscapes. We drove next to a giant turquoise lake (Lake Pukaki). The minerals released by a melted glacier are the reason for thsi particular color and it turned out to be really special. Even with the bad weather, we took the road heading all the way to the village of Mount Cook but got some snow half way up. We stopped at an information center to get the latest weather update but by the time we got out, there was almost 10 cm on the ground. It suddenly really looked like home and I had to quickly get back my winter reflexes. We never made it to the top as it became more and more dangerous to keep the van on the snowy road. I even got stuck trying to make a u-turn but got some help from a bus driver and his assistant moments later. Very disappointed, we safely made it back to the highway. We then tried to get out of the area as fast as possible as we heard we might be stuck in a small town (Twizel) for the next two days. A bit nerve wracking, I drove very slowly out of there and was lucky to find rain about 50 km later. Some people had put chains (!!) already and they were selling them for over a 100$ for two!?! At that time, we had decided to head down to Oamaru, before Dunedin, on the east coast.
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