Sunday, January 31st. When we get up this morning, the house is again quite put to sleep. The guys went out in town the day before, they have of return good late! Having tidied up our stuff, we thus leave discreetly not to wake them, by leaving them a small word. Today, we leave for the lake Tekapo, renowned for its beauty. We turn off westward on the road 83 at the level of Oamaru to go to the mountain range Southern Alps, on the other side this time. The road crosses by Waitaki Valley, with as usual, various places to be visited. We stop at first in "Elephant Rocks". It is rocks which were dug before by the river and now by the wind and the rain. It is funny, they are all round off, and that makes a surprising landscape. We picnic here, by trying to see where hides the elephant. We do not see it! We have a small break then in "rock Maori paintings ", a small cave where there are drawings made by the Maori there are several hundreds of years. As for several days, the sky gets free during the day, maintaining, the weather is beautiful. The road passes by several lakes, we do not grow tired of these magnificent landscapes.

Having driven well, we arrive on a first lake, a lake Pukaki. It has a very particular clear color, a blue, and opaque. With the mountain range in bottom, it is magnificent. There are regrettably clouds which prevent us from seeing the mountain Cook, the highest mountain of NZ (3670 meters). We perceive only a quite small end of the summit, quite covered with snow. On the road for the lake Tekapo, we take hitch-hiker, American. Once arrived at Tekapo (only some houses which align themselves: restaurants, souvenir shops and hotels), we go to the point of view with the American, then we leave him. In the point of view, there is a small chapel, very beautiful with the lake in background. We are going to settle then near the lake. It has the same color as the precedent, but by we are a little disappointed because we do not see the mountain Cook … Finally, even if this lake is magnificent, we preferred the view(sight) since the other one. We take all the same time to contemplate this landscape by settling at the water's edge, with on our right an incredible cloud sea.

Before finding a place where settle with the car, we are going to phone to our family. Regrettably, money are faster produced than planned and we have no time to give a lot of news. We are sorry! The sun begins to go to bed, we go away from the city by car, by going a little to height to hope to find a place not forbids the campsite. We have a beautiful view from here! Finally, we have no time to see the known sunset on the lake, but we find a place where we can sleep. It is a place fitted out for the campsite, without being one! And here we are, it left for a new night in the car.