Day 24 Fairlie & Lake Tekapo

We rented a car upon departing Christchurch to drive to some adventures on the south island. This is where we head for the scenic southern alps and Fiordland over several stops. We departed Christchurch on a rainy day, travelling to Fairlie for the night. Fairlie is a small town that was a reasonable place to stop to break up the drive to the Mount Cook area.

We stayed at a small motel called the Mackenzie Motel in Fairlie. Fairlie sits in scenic foothills of the southern alps.

During our stop we visited the Fairlie Bakehouse, which was extremely busy with locals and famous for baked pies, a loved snack or meal for New Zealanders. They come with different ingredients, meats, cheeses, mushrooms, etc. We had one when we arrived in Fairlie for a snack and it was so good we bought two more the next morning to take away for our travels.

At Fairlie we actually checked in the motel but drove further to have a look at Lake Tekapo, a famous scenic lake, and we then returned for the night at Fairlie. We had a very nice supper of gourmet pizza at the Carnegies Restaurant & Bar in Fairlie. Our night at the Mackenzie Motel cost $139NZ.

As we drove on the next morning from Fairlie again to Lake Tekapo and beyond we stopped at the location of the University of Canterbury Mt. John Observatory summit viewpoint. This overlooks Lake Tekapo with dramatic mountains in the background. The Mt John Observatory is the location of several high power telescopes. This area is renowned for dark night skies, enabling very good nighttime observations. We did not get to use these, we just stopped there to take in the stunning view. There is a cafe at the summit and it is also the starting location of a some popular hikes.

Here are some pics from Fairlie and Lake Tekapo in the afternoon and the next day as we drove by a second time. Note with the pictures in the afternoon, it was cool and we were warmly dressed and next day the sun was out and a bit warmer.