Lake Tekapo & Tekapo Springs

So, we got up this morning and explored Lake Tekapo in the morning. Although I was most unimpressed with the quality of our hotel in Lake Tekapo, the view was brilliant. I mean, our french windows looked out to the Lake and the surrounding mountains. This is the same view immortalized in postcards, and we only had to draw the curtains to enjoy it. We did a bit of minor shopping (made in China New Zealand hat, stuffed kiwi, and fleece jacket) and then walked around a bit around the lake, the Good Shepherd Church, and more. A lady at the store asked us if we were going to spend the day at Tekapo Springs and enticed us with tales of hot springs, skating, and snow tubing. After putting some gas in the car, we decided to head to Queenstown and only stop at Tekapo Springs if we saw a sign "just to check it out."

Of course, Tekapo Springs was right there and the snow tubing sounded like fun. So, we decided to spend an hour or so having a blast tubing down a nice slope. They have a conveyor belt that transports people up the slope and we tube down. It was a blast. You can watch a video of the kids snowtubing here. We then stopped at the cafe in Tekapo Springs for lunch which took a LOOONG time to arrive. We hit the road only by about 2:15 PM.

The drive down was, again, spectacular. We went through terrain that varied from sapphire blue lakes ringed with snow covered peaks to gorges with bubbling brilliant green rivers. At one stage, we went through a frost zone where the frost coated every little tendril of the branches of trees to make the entire seem seem like a powdered-sugar-coated winter wonderland. The "southern alps" really afforded us some breathtaking views (I know I used that term yesterday, but I cannot find other words in my vocabulary to describe the beauty of the drive).

We even had the quintessential tour-book experience when we had to come to a standstill on the highway to allow a large herd of sheep to cross the road with the backdrop of the snow covered peaks. It was so uplifting to have these experiences that there is no way we would have had if we had chosen to simply fly from Sydney directly to Queenstown. The drive itself was quite smooth. The mountain passes were clear and the roads were dry despite us hearing about the record-breaking cold spell in the area which is expected to continue through the weekend. Temps over the passes were slightly below 0 (celsius) and Queenstown itself has a low of about -5C and a high of about 4C.

We arrived in Queenstown - an unbelievably beautiful little town in Central Otago at about 5:30 PM and checked into our hotel. We quickly cleaned up and dressed for the conference reception. Just before heading the few feet from our room to the reception room, Jay casusally asked me if he should pull out his loose tooth. I distractedly said "yes," and was surprised to see him in the bathroom a few minutes later at a blood-covered sink proudly holding up a tooth.

At the reception, I enjoyed meeting up with old friends and had a few glasses of Gibbotson Valley Pinot Noir. Sheila and Jay enthralled a few of the people at the reception for about an hour before heading to the room while I stayed on a bit. One pleasant finding was that our room is on the 5th floor which is also where all the conference meeting rooms are. The meeting rooms and break foyer are literally thirty feet away from our hotel room. Some of the local organizers also assured me that Queenstown is a small and safe tiny town and it would be perfectly safe for the kids to explore the areas right around the hotel. The info in the room said there are several games and activities for kids we can just pick up from the front desk. They are also looking into some tours that will take the kids. Apparently there are tours which will pick up and drop off right at the hotel, so we'll see how things go. Either way, it is reassuring to know that the kids will have plenty to do while I am at the conference.

My presentation is tomorrow afternoon and I did a couple of run throughs of the presentation with the kids as my audience. Good thing too. My first run through was a mess. I was less than half way through my slides when Jay told me I was over my 15-minute time limit. So, I stopped and did some brutal hacking of my slides. My second run through resulted in my "running" through the presentation in 16 minutes. So, I should be fine.