Day 120: Lake Tekapo 0 Day — Heading Outbound

Wednesday, March 29

I woke up around 8. The hot water bottle last night was so wonderful. I remember Erinn talking about using hot water in Nalgene bottles when she's camping. Maybe I'll need to try that sometime now that it's getting cold.

When we were all up and hungry, we made some delicious breakfast nachos. Sam and Lauren are so good at making them!

After we were finished eating, we packed up so we could check out at 10. We walked to the YHA and dropped our backpacks off. It was a really nice hostel.

We wanted to go to the hot springs, and Karolina and Noemie told us we could get into the sauna and steam room for free if we got our passes at the info center in town. After getting our passes we stopped at the famous stone church to take photos, but there was a wedding going on so we didn't stick around long.

We stopped to get snacks at the Four Square and walked to the hot springs. They were pretty nice and it was a relaxing activity. We had fun going in the sauna and the crazy cold dunk pool outside it.

Before leaving the hot springs for a bit we got snacks at the cafe there and used the wifi. Then we went to the YHA to do laundry and check in.

Around 5 we walked up Mount St John. Lots of people recommended it and it was a quick and easy uphill walk during golden hour. There were so many bunnies around the trail and a great view of Lake Tekapo. There's an observatory up there too, but the tickets for it were really expensive.

When we finished the walk, we went back to the hot springs as the sun set. It was really nice. Before we left around 9 we grabbed a quick dinner. It was $15 for fish and chips, but it was so much more food than at the tavern last night that it ended up being a better deal.

As we walked back to the hostel the stars were amazing. Lake Tekapo is known for its dark sky and star viewing.

When we got to the YHA we had some hot chocolate, Tim Tams and ice cream and wrote some postcards. It was hard to believe this was our last night to hang out in New Zealand together. Sam and Lauren had a bus back to Christchurch tomorrow so they could catch their flight.

We went out to look at the stars and ended up going to bed around midnight.