Lake Pukaki, Aoraki/Mt. Cook, Lake Tekapo and Oamaru

We purposely camped in Omarama last night because it gave us a head start this morning to our first stop: Aoraki/Mt. Cook.

Map of today's activities:

We started in Omarama and headed towards Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park, but on the way we passed right by Lake Pukaki (yea, yea, get your giggles out now).  We hung around Mt. Cook only for a short while (we didn't have time to hike up the mountain to see another glacier because it would have taken hours) and then backtracked around Lake Pukaki again (hardy-har-har) and into the Mt. John Observatory to get a fabulous view of Lake Takapo.  Afterwards, we went to Oamaru to try to spot some rare yellow-nosed penguins in the wild.  As you can see, we're making our way down the South Island.

The red dot is Oamaru, where we're ending our day.

We better get started.

Starting in Omarama, we passed Lake Pukaki and the color of the water was incredible!  I kept taking pictures, trying to capture it, but I just couldn't (believe it or not, it was WAY brighter and bluer than this):

It was just so stunning, we couldn't believe it.
The turquoise blue color is due to a sediment in the water known as "rock flour."  It formed when a glacier gouged out the lake's basin while gliding across.  The grinding of the glacier against the lake floor formed super tiny particles that became suspended in the water.  The sediment gives the water a milky quality and refracts sunlight, making the turquoise brilliance you see before you.

Now we're nearing Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park:

Aoraki/Mt. Cook is the largest mountain in New Zealand (and I think Australia as well), but unfortunately the fog covers most of the mountaintop (and bottom):

Aaron thought this was hilarious:

It's amateur comedy hour at Mt. Cook, so come on down!

We're here!

To hike the mountain takes hours and we didn't have time, so we just had to settle for taking pictures from the ground.  Oh well, maybe someday!

Then we backtracked outta there and towards Mt. John Observatory.
Found another van with a crazy saying:

Geez, subtle.

We passed Pukaki again and the patches of sunlight hitting the sediment in the water made pools of even lighter blue, almost like it was glowing:

Wow!  Paradise!

We got to My. John Observatory and had to pay a fee to drive up to the top.  Lame, but whatever, it was cheap.

This is Lake Tekapo, a bit smaller than Pukaki, but same idea with the sediment:

The Astro Cafe is considered one of the best views for a restaurant ever:

View:

We had already eaten car sandwiches (yum), so we just got dessert:

We had a brownie and a custard tart thing.  Delish!

Walked around a little:

Then it was off to the next stop!  Oamaru!
Our GPS told us to take an interesting road:

which we actually did for about 3 minutes, until it became way too treacherous for poor Pooey and we had to backtrack (literally backwards) and go a much longer way around.  Hello, GPS!!  This is not your average unpaved road, okay?!  Not cool!

Another sheep crossing!!

So fricken cool!

Countryside:

Purdee!!

We finally got to the town of Oamaru, where we immediately headed to Bushy Beach to see the large and rare yellow-eyed penguin colony.

The yellow-eyed penguins waddle onshore in the late afternoon to feed their young hiding in the dense bushes.  The beach closes in the afternoon because if the penguins see or hear people, they will run away and their young will go unfed and die.  There are lookouts up high where you can watch (quietly), but they're hard to spot because you're pretty high up:

There were seals all over the beach and they don't seem to bother with the penguins at all:

We waited for about 10 minutes, but we finally spotted one:

OMG a yellow-eyed penguin in the wild!!  What a treat!
It walked across the beach and over to the bush, where it's young were waiting:

Aaron's phone kinda sucked with the videos, but thanks to my trusty camera, I was able to get some decent shots.

YAY!  We left with such a rush from seeing the penguin, we didn't even care that we were tired and daylight was escaping us.  We heard the town of Oamaru was not to be missed, so we hurried to explore before the sun left us completely.

This part of the town had a very steampunk vibe, mixed with an entire neighborhood of old Victorian buildings.

This was a drive-by, but we walked through the Victorian neighborhood later.

Where's Aaron?

Here's the pic he took from the bridge:

Very artsy-fartsy.

These tree carvings were interesting:

A steampunk playground:

Here he goes (can you see him?):

Wee!!!

So much fun!

Now we walked through the Victorian neighborhood:

Kinda eerie and deserted, but that's because it was later in the evening.  I think many of the buildings have been re-purposed as new shops, without defacing the storefronts from their authentic, old-time charm.
Aaron took a long tour, if you're interested.
We did run into a random Scottish band:

Even with no one around (well, besides us), they were playing their hearts out.

We then knew it was time to find a campsite for the night, so we got back in the car and accidentally ran into this:

Tons of birds on this abandoned pier.  That's a lot of poop.

We drove through downtown looking for a Countdown (the local chain grocery store):

The downtown area was just as nice as the other side of town.  On the one side, you have the steampunk playground and Victorian neighborhood with tons of character and history and on the other side, you have a typical city with gorgeously constructed NEW buildings, for practical, everyday life.  It's like 2 different towns in one!

We found the Countdown, got some grub and drove to the nearest free campsite I could find.  It was full, but we shoved our way in and it worked out just fine.  It was just a small parking lot on the beach with a small bathroom, but it was the only free campsite nearby and everyone looking for a place to crash was there.  We ate, watched a movie (I don't even remember what) and fell asleep under the moonlight.

Nighty night!  Still more to come!