Tues 8th Feb - Mackenzie Country & Lake Tekapo

Leaving the Banks Peninsula, which was beautifully convoluted high rolling hills & valleys, bays etc, you drop straight back down onto the Canterbury plains – which go on for AGES, and are pretty uninteresting! Must be jolly useful for the New Zealanders, as most of their agriculture happens there – but scenic at all.

Then – WHAM – all of a sudden,  you're into Mackenzie country – high rolling pastures at the southern edge of the Canterbury plains, and before you hit the southern alps. Named after the legendary James “Jock” Mackenzie; a rustler who ran and grazed his stolen flocks in this then, unpopulated area very successfully for years in the 1840’s. It was only after he was caught that people realised the land’s potential for grazing, and settled here.

 Then on to Lake Tekapo – on the way to the southern alps – beautiful blue lake (minerals washed down from the hills), and a lovely chapel on the lake (complete with japanese tourist wedding –  no REALLY!), and memorial tribute statue  to the role the collie dogs played in working the grazing in Mackenzie country.