Lake Tekapo

22 March 2025

After a morning of hiking at Mount Cook National Park, we drove about 100 km to Lake Tekapo. The small township is located at the southern end of the lake of the same name. Lake Tekapo is known for attractions such as The Church of the Good Shepherd and is an excellent destination for stargazing since it is in the middle of Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky reserve.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo’s most iconic landmark.

Our drive from Mount Cook to Lake Tekapo

The journey by car from Mount Cook National Park to Lake Tekapo would take approximately an hour and a half, offering numerous scenic viewpoints along the way.

We had stopped by many viewpoints by the shore of Lake Pukaki on our way to Mount Cook a few days earlier. So we only made a stop at Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop located on the southern shore of the lake. The Lake Pukaki Visitor Center is also located here.

Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop sells locally farmed freshwater Chinook salmon products. This is a good place to enjoy salmon sashimi while witnessing the turquoise-colored water of Lake Pukaki and the majestic peaks of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. 

We ordered 500 gram of salmon sashimi for NZ$50, plus some hot drinks and sat on one of the benches by the lake.

Compared to the High Mountain Salmon that we tried a couple of days earlier (see my blog post), the menu at Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop is simpler. High Mountain Salmon menu’s included teriyaki salmon collars/wings, sushi and sashimi. There are options of sitting indoor or outdoor under umbrellas. At Alpine Salmon, we had to sit under the warm autumn sun but the food and views made up for the heat.

We also made a quick stop at the Lake Pukaki Viewpoint (Google Map location here) before continuing our drive to Lake Tekapo. The view is almost similar to those at the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop.

View from Lake Pukaki Viewpoint.

Dinner at Lake Tekapo

It was about 4.30 PM when we checked into our One Bedroom apartment at Lake Tekapo. The apartment, known as Stellar Apartment, is located on high ground and is a few minutes drive to the lake.

For dinner, we did some research on places to eat and decided to buy fish and chips from a highly raved food truck known as The Better Batter. This food truck is parked regularly by the shore of Lake Tekapo. Google Maps location here.

Lake Tekapo.

Better Batter food truck parked at the car park along the shore of Lake Tekapo.

Our takeaway dinner consists of fish and chips and crispy squid.

Our plan was to picnic by the lake but there were too few benches and all were occupied. So we went back to the apartment to enjoy our food.

The crispy squid was especially well seasoned and perfectly cooked. The deep fried, battered fish had crispy and light crust with moist, perfectly cooked fish inside. The coleslaw with dressing included as a side dish is good too. This food truck deserves the highly raved reviews.

The Church of the Good Shepherd

The sun sets about 7.30 PM in Lake Tekapo and we made it to The Church of the Good Shepherd just before sunset. Evening is the best time to go for a walk by the lake.

Sunset on a cloudy day at Lake Tekapo.

The Church of the Good Shepherd. One of the most photographed buildings in New Zealand.

The Church of the Good Shepherd is a popular tourist attraction. It was built in 1935 as a memorial church to commemorate the early settlers. It is one of the most photographed buildings in the country. I remember enjoying the view of the lake and mountains from the big glass window behind the altar when we visited in 2004. This time, the church was closed. It is only opened during church service.

The church was not opened to tourists.

The grounds of the church are opened to the public and there is a large field behind where lupins are known to grow. We came at the wrong season for lupins and there were only a few in bloom. The lupin season in Lake Tekapo typically runs from mid-November to early January, with the peak bloom often occurring in late November and December.

Stacked stones and lupins behind the church.

A few late bloomers could be seen.

The Sheepdog Memorial

A few hundred meters from The Church of Good Shepherd is a monument celebrating another shepherd. I had seen sheepdogs in action before and they are amazingly intelligent and effective in rounding up and herding sheep.

As a dog lover and owner of 2 dogs, I think this is a beautiful and meaningful statue to recognise man’s best friend.

A statue of a Collie dog with inscription that stated that farmers could not have farmed this land without the help of these dogs.

We then drove to Four Square Tekapo hoping to buy some grocery but the store closed at 8 PM.

We killed some time at the nearby playground. The Tekapo playground is a spacious and popular spot for kids (and adults too!). The playground features a giant slide, swings, and a flying fox that children love.

Tried this swing just to shoot some photos to show our grandson back home. 

We also managed to see and capture geese flying in formation overhead.

Stargazing at Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo is renowned for its exceptional stargazing opportunities, being part of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. There are many stargazing tour operators in Lake Tekapo with various offerings. These tours often involve the use of telescopes, expert commentary on constellations and celestial objects. One even combines stargazing with hot pools at Tekapo Springs.

The Dark Sky Project offers various stargazing experiences including stargazing at Mount John Observatory and Cowan's Private Observatory.  

Telescope at the Dark Sky Project Base.

I prefer a smaller and more personalised experience so I booked a stargazing tour with Astro Tekapo a few days earlier. This is a small group tour with a maximum of 10 participants.

The best condition for stargazing would a clear sky and no moon. Moonrise on this night was about 11.30 PM and would not affect our tour which starts at 9 PM.

I had noticed that the sky above Lake Tekapo was cloudy and was concerned that the conditions may not be suitable for stargazing and the tour may have to be cancelled. I contacted our guide a few hours before the tour and he told us to proceed to the meeting place for the tour if we do not hear from him by 8.30 PM

8.30 PM came and we proceeded to the meeting place as directed. Our guide, named Sang, was waiting for us. There were a few other groups in our tour. We were in luck as the sky above us was mostly clear during our 90 minutes tour.

We were each provided with red light torch to help lit the way safely to the middle of a really dark field. From there, we could see plenty of tiny stars and the Milky Way with our naked eyes.

We even spotted some “stars” moving in a straight trajectory. These are satellites orbiting the earth at high altitude and lit by sunlight even though the sun had already gone below the horizon.       

There were two telescopes deployed. The primary telescoped used by Astro Tekapo is the Celestron CPC Deluxe 925 HD which has a 9.25” aperture and HD optics with a computerized mount and integrated GPS. The second instrument is a state-of-the-art Unistellar eVscope 2 smart telescope which allowed us to look even deeper into space, revealing space clouds and distant galaxies in magnificent colours and incredibly fine detail.

We took turns to peek into the 2 telescopes provided to see various nebulas, star clusters, binary stars etc.

One of the stars we viewed in the telescope was Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system outside the sun. It is 4.4 light-years away. With the naked eye, this star appeared as a bright star near the Southern Cross constellation. Viewed with the telescope, I saw a pair of stars known as binary stars. In actual fact, Alpha Centauri is a triple star system. There is a much smaller star (not visible in the telescope) revolving round the binary star.

One of the telescopes has a photographic function to track and capture long exposure photos of the heavenly objects. I requested Sang to send me a few photos of what we saw that night and it was nice of him to send them to me via email after the tour.

Omega-Centauri Star cluster as viewed from the telescope. It is located approximately 17,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus and is visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy patch of light under dark skies. Photo credit: Astro-Tekapo.

Running Man nebula as viewed from the telescope. Photo credit: Astro-Tekapo. The gas cloud is famous for its appearance, which has a dark patch that resembles a running figure with arms outstretched.

We were advised to dress warmly for the tour and it was cold! Thankfully, we brought our down jackets.

Chairs, blankets and hot chocolate were provided for us to sit and gaze at the night sky. Using a laser pointer, Sang introduced the various constellations like Orion, Canis Major and Southern Cross to us.

Sang even explained a little on how to use the stars for navigation. Most people know that ancient sea-farers had used Polaris, also known as the North Star, as a reliable marker for finding north. This star is positioned very close to the Earth's north celestial pole and it appears nearly stationary in the sky while other stars seem to rotate around it.

Since we were in the Southern Hemisphere, we could not see the North Star Polaris. Sang explained how to use the Southern Cross constellation to locate where the imaginary location of the “South-Star” (and hence south) would be located.

Southern Cross is a small, distinct constellation made up of four bright stars, with 2 bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, located next to it.

For those interested, here is the method.

Find the two pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri near the Southern Cross Constellation. Draw an imaginary line between them. Draw another imaginary line from the top star (Gacrux) to the bottom star (Acrux) of the Southern Cross. The intersection of these two lines points to the south celestial pole, and looking down from that point will indicate south.

The best part of the tour is when Sang took a photo of each group of tour participants with the night sky in the background.

Our family photo with Milky Way Galaxy, Southern Cross constellation, and two bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri right above our heads. From the above photo, can you located where is south?

After our tour, we went back to the Church of Good Shepherd. We had hoped to snap some photos of the church with the starry night sky above. There were just too many like-minded people that night. It was just impossible to snap a good, long exposure photo without someone shining a light at the building or walking into our shot. We gave up after a while and just enjoyed views of the night sky from the lakeside.

Photo of The Church of Good Shepherd with the night sky.

Star gazing on a clear night is a must-do activity when visiting Lake Tekapo.

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Tasman Valley Hike at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park

22 March 2025

After completing the Hooker Valley hike in the morning, we had time for a short afternoon hike at Tasman Valley before leaving Mount Cook National Park for Lake Tekapo. There are a few hiking trails at Tasman Valley and I opted to do the hike to Tasman River.

The walk begins from the Tasman Glacier Car Park (Google Maps location here) at the end of the Tasman Valley Road. The road is off State Highway 80, just outside Aoraki Mount Cook Village. We drove along the scenic Tasman Valley Road for about 7 km to the car park. 

At the car park, there are bathrooms and a shelter where we had our picnic lunch. By the time we finished our lunch, it was 1.30 PM. From the shelter, there is a single trailhead that starts as the Tasman Glacier View Track.

About 200 metres later, the track splits at a fork with the left fork leading to Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier View and the right fork leading to Tasman Lake jetty and Tasman River.

We took the right fork leading to Tasman Lake Jetty and Tasman River. The trails are well-maintained gravel trails that are easy to follow.

Hiking at this time of day was not so pleasant. Although the views of the Tasman Valley with spectacular lenticular clouds above were awesome, we were reeling from the warm weather.   

On the Tasman Valley track.

Tasman Valley

After about 800 metres along the track, we reached another junction. The left trail leads to Tasman Lake Jetty. This jetty is where the people taking the boat and kayak tours on Tasman Lake enter the water. We met some folks who had completed their tour and walking back to the car park.

We took the trail on the right fork that leads to the source of the Tasman River, where the water from the lake drains into the river.

On the trail towards Tasman River viewpoint. The trail is on open terrain and there is no shade from the hot afternoon sun.

After about 20 minutes into the hike, we arrived at the end of the official trail. We could scramble up the edge of a moraine in front of us or scramble down over large boulders to the water’s edge.

We walked up the slope of the moraine to get a better view of the lake. We could see Mount Cook at the far side of the lake.

Walking up the moraine at the end of the Tasman River trail.

On top of the moraine by the shore of Tasman Lake.

We could see some people gathered around the Tasman Lake Jetty a short distance away.  My son and I were tempted to do a hike on top of the moraine to get to the jetty but decided it was not worth the effort and risk since the moraine is mostly rocks and loose gravel.

The top of the moraine forms a leading line pointing towards Mount Cook at the far side of the lake.

View of Tasman Lake and some ice-bergs that had broken off from the Tasman Glacier.

The source of the Tasman River. I had read that this is a good place for photography in the early morning when the water in the lake is still and reflects Mount Cook on the surface.

There seems to be a trail down to the edge of the Tasman Lake and Tasman River but it would require scrambling over some large boulders. We decided not to risk our lives and limbs.

Tasman River flowing along the Tasman Valley.

View of the section of the trail near the end. The trail is mostly on open terrain with no shade.

After a short rest and soaking in the views, we made the short but arduous walk back to the car park under the hot afternoon sun. With more time and energy, we may have tried hiking the other trails to the Blue Lake and Tasman Glacier Viewpoint. The weather was just too warm for more hikes. We decided to say goodbye to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park and continue on our road trip towards Lake Tekapo.

Overall, I did not enjoy this hike as compared to the more scenic Hooker Valley hike. Maybe it would have been better if we had done the hike in cooler climate, and perhaps hike to the Tasman Glacier Viewpoint and Blue Lake (i.e. take the left fork at the first junction) instead of Tasman Lake Jetty and Tasman River.

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Hooker Valley Hike at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park

22 March 2025

As usual, I woke up about 30 minutes before sunrise hoping to shoot some photos of the sun rays painting the mountain golden. From the balcony of my room in the Hermitage Hotel, I had good views of Mount Sefton, Hooker Valley and Mount Cook in the distant.  

Sunrise from the balcony of my room in Hermitage Hotel located in Mount Cook Village. Mount Sefton was nicely illuminated by the golden rays but disappointingly, Mount Cook was not.

Our plan for the morning was to do the Hooker Valley hike again. The Hooker Valley Track is known for its iconic suspension bridges. In fact, there are three along the trail before hikers arrived at Hooker Lake, the end point.

We had hiked a portion of this trail during sunset the day before (see this post) but only up to the 2nd suspension bridge. This hike was so fantastic that we are doing it again but at different time of the day. This morning, we will complete the entire 10 km return hike.

The hike on a mostly flat track through Hooker Valley to Hooker Lake provides incredible views of the Southern Alps, glacial streams and the majestic Aoraki (Mount Cook).

After a simple breakfast of instant noodles, we checked out from our hotel and drove to the trail head located at White Horse Hill campground/carpark. Just as we were approaching the car park, we realised that we had forgotten to return the keys to the hotel.     

We were fortunate to discover our mistake early. It would have been disastrous if we had discovered our mistake a few hours into the hike. Thankfully, Hermitage Hotel was only a few minutes drive away and we sorted that out quickly.

Starting The Hike                    

We arrived at the White Horse Hill campground/carpark at about 8 AM and we had no problem finding a parking space. Once again, we were blessed with very good weather and it was much cooler to do the hike in the early morning.

Start of our Hooker Valley hike in the morning.

Mueller Lake Lookout

It was a nice and easy 1 km walk to the Mueller Lake Lookout located just before the first suspension bridge. The cool and fresh morning air made this hike more enjoyable as compared to our first hike.

Mueller Lake Lookout provides an excellent vantage point overlooking Mueller Lake and the first suspension bridge. Looking back, we could also see the path we took to this point.  

View of the path we took to Mueller Lake and the Tasman Valley in the back.

Mueller Lake and Mount Sefton. The lake is in the shadows as the sun as still low in the sky.

First Suspension Bridge along the Hooker Valley track as viewed from Mueller Lake Lookout.                                                       

First Swing Bridge along the Hooker Valley Track                                   

We made our way down to the first swing bridge. We stopped at the middle of the bridge to enjoy the views and also shoot photos of the Hooker River below.             

Crossing the first swing bridge.

 Like before, it was thrilling to walk on the planks of the slightly bouncy and swinging bridge with views of the river below.

Despite my fear of heights and morbid thoughts of my phone dropping into the river below, we stopped along the bridge to snap photos of the stunning views.                                         

Nice views from the middle of the bridge.  

View of Hooker River and Mount Sefton from the middle of the first suspension bridge.        

After crossing the first bridge, the path followed the shore of the Mueller Lake to the second bridge. Once again, we enjoyed views of Mount Sefton, Mueller Lake and the moraine on the opposite shore. The second suspension bridge is located about 1.3 km from the first swing bridge.     

View of Hermitage Hotel in the distance.

Mueller Lake and Mount Sefton bathed in the morning sun.

Second Swing Bridge

Second Swing Bridge along the Hooker Valley track.

After crossing the second bridge, the path followed the Hooker River. Once again, I stopped to shoot a few photos of the water gushing over the large boulders.

Long exposure photos of water gushing over the large boulders in the Hooker River.

Section of trail next to the Hooker River after the second swing bridge.

Mount Cook soon appears. Mount Cook in the morning light was not as impressive compared to the Mount Cook painted golden by the setting.

Mount Cook in the morning light.

This was where we turned back during our first hike. Proceeding along the valley, we soon come to wooden boardwalk heading towards Mount Cook.

Hooker Valley Track Boardwalk

The landscape at this part of the trail is a photographer’s delight and is one of the highlights of hiking the Hooker Valley Track.

Hooker Valley Track boardwalk.

The boardwalk provides a beautiful leading line towards the mountains and Mount Cook in particular.

Third Swing Bridge on Hooker Valley Track

The boardwalk continued to the third swing bridge. We saw the sun peeking from behind the mountain as we approached the bridge.

Third Suspension Bridge over the Hooker River.

We were just in time to see the third swing bridge illuminated by the rising sun as we crossed it. 

View of the river from the middle of the third suspension bridge.

As we approached Hooker Lake, we could see glacier on the mountain top and waterfall from the melting glacier tumbling down the cliff.

Glacier covered mountains.

Waterfall cascading down the cliff in Hooker Valley.

Hooker Valley Track’s Alpine Tarn

Shortly after crossing the third bridge, we spotted a sign pointing to a track that leads to a small alpine tarn located on the right side of the track. 

The short detour led us to a small body of water that was not very impressive at first look. I bashed through some thickets to get to the opposite side of the tarn to snap photos of Mount Cook reflected from the still surface of this small body of water. The photo opportunity is worth the short detour.  

Hooker Valley Track’s alpine tarn with Mount Cook reflected off the surface. 

On the trail towards Hooker Lake. The lake is just round the corner.

Hooker Lake

From the tarn, we continued for another 700 metres to arrive at the end of the trail at Hooker Lake, which offers a brilliant view of Aoraki / Mount Cook.

Mount Cook at Hooker Lake.

There is a large picnic table where we sat to enjoy a break with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and the glacial lake blow.

View of Hooker Lake.

      

Glacier covered mountains around Hooker Lake.

Hooker Lake was formed by the recent retreat of the Hooker Glacier. Some small ice-bergs that had broken off from the glacier could still be seen floating on the lake even though it was early autumn.  The water must be freezing cold even with the hot sun but we spotted some guys taking a dip.

Sign warning about the hazards in the lake.

A track led down to the shore of the lake. It is worthwhile to spend some time to relax by the lake and explore its rocky shores.

It was fun to spot floating ice-bergs that looked like a swan, dorsal fin of a shark or even the head of a person.

Exploring the rocky shore of Hooker Lake.  

Spot the ice-berg that looked like a swan in the background.

This iceberg looks like a Queen’s head.

Hooker Lake marks the end of the Hooker Valley Trail. After some time to rest and relax by the shores of the lake, we made our way back to the White Horse Campground.

Overall, this hike is one of the best hikes we did in New Zealand, in terms of easiness and yet offering the most beautiful landscape.

News update:

The second suspension bridge on the Hooker Valley Track is permanently closed due to riverbank erosion and safety concerns. A new suspension bridge is being built, with an expected opening in Autumn 2026. The track remains open to the first swing bridge.

More information can be found at the Department of Conservation website.

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