Lake Tekapo, Friday

 Happy St Patrick’s day if you’re Irish!

Got off to a good start and stopped at Baldwin Street which claims to be the most steep street in the world, averaging a rise of about 3 metres for every 1 metre. Some of our group walked it but I was happy to take photos from the bottom, especially when I saw the condition of a couple of them who had attempted the climb, and failed!

Then headed along the east coast and all was going well until the undercarriage of the coach sounded decidedly crook! Managed to snap the sway bar so we weren’t going anywhere further. Thankfully stopped near the small town of  Waikouaiti which we walked about 500 metres to, and found a little bakery for coffee and a finger bun. Loved the sign on the little shop that claimed to be world famous in New Zealand!

Needed to while away a good 90 plus minutes when the local school bus was commissioned to take us on to, however the best laid plans of mice and men did not bode well as the new driver simply drove us around a couple of blocks and back to our coach where we were all the required to get on our original coach as we were now informed that the coach was safe enough to take us to Oamaru where a replacement bus would come for us.

Talk about ‘Dad’s Army’! What a fiasco but every one managed to end up on the right bus and off we headed. Stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders on Koekohe Beach.

We finally got to Oamaru where we were to have lunch and look around waiting for our replacement coach. What an unusual place it was. It is Steam Punk capital along with magnificent early 1900s architecture. Was nice to wander about but we had all had enough by the time our new coach finally arrived.

Back on the coach and we are meant to go to Arrakis Mount Cook National park to view Australasia’s highest mountain but luck was against us as the weather turned bad and we had rain and grey skies with a lot of cloud cover. It was disappointing, but the decision was made to forego Mt Cook and head to our hotel in Lake Tekapo, especially as we were running late due to the coach breakdown. There was still some lovely scenery along the way when the sun would come out and we passed two huge lakes that fed some of the hydro electric stations.

Somewhere in the distance is Mt Cook.

We finally arrived at our accommodation for the last night of our tour and couldn’t believe our good fortune to be at Peppers Bluewater Resort. I had my very own 2 storey self contained apartment. Fabulous views from the first floor balcony and really well appointed.

We had our farewell buffet dinner in the restaurant and were treated to a lovely rainbow and then pink skies. What a lovely end to a ‘messy’ day, and a fitting last night to our tour.