Gramma Barb's Visit 2010, Part V

Another favorite spot of mine is Lake Tekapo, population 303. The lake is fed by water from nearby(ish) glaciers. Apparently when gravity pulls ice from the glaciers into valleys, the ice scrapes the mountainside rocks and creates what is called glacier flour. The glacier flour-containing ice melts once it reaches lower valley altitudes. Glacier-fed lakes are a brilliant turquoise blue. And they are darned cold. Lake Tekapo also is great for star gazing and is home to St. Johns Observatory. Unfortunately we didn't check it out at night but last year we had lunch at the top and were stunned by the beauty.

We camped at Lake Tekapo for one night. Liska had fallen asleep and Lazlo was on his way when I noticed a full rainbow, part of it double, stretching across the lake. Brad and my mom took him down to the lake to see and he took this picture:






As glad as I was that Laz got to see the rainbow, I felt badly that Liska missed it. So, for the first time ever, I was happy when she woke me in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I had never seen so many stars and she was awestruck, having rarely seen any at all since she is usually asleep by 7pm. I didn't take a picture, but the moving photo at the top of this link (I think you have to copy and paste it) shows what it looked like:

http://www.tekapotourism.co.nz/activities/earth_and_sky.html