Backpacking Part Five: Lake Tekapo and Christchurch

✒️ Written by: James Lake TekapoWe made our way from Mt Cook to Lake Tekapo / Takapō (the Māori name). The name describes both the lake itself and the little village situated on its banks. It sits bang in the centre of the South Island. It's most famous for housing The Church of the Good Shepherd - a quaint little stone church built in the 1930s. We saw it as we drove past, but didn't go to see it in person... But there are plenty of beautiful photos of it; it's arguably one of the most photographed of New Zealand's buildings1. We were there at the wrong time of year to see the lupins in bloom... That would have been a sight to behold! I was hoping to get a photo similar to the one above with the church in the foreground and the milky way in the background, because that's the second most well-known thing about Lake Tekapo: it sits in the heart of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve - The Southern Hemisphere's largest dark sky reserve2. The reason I couldn't get this…