Lake Tekapo – The Road to Mount Cook

Traveling from Christchurch towards Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, along this route lies one of the most scenic lakes in the MacKenzie region – Lake Tekapo. A most spectacular sight the visitor will encounter is the beautiful turquoise colour of the lake. The lake is fed by waters from the glacier melt of the surrounding mountain range, the Southern Alps. It is the very fine sediments suspended in the glacial waters that give the lake its colour.

I have been at Lake Tekapo in autumn, spring and winter and each visit has been a new experience seeing various shades of colours ranging from turquoise to blue, even grey! I was fortunate to have seen the vivid turquoise colour on my first visit in autumn. Too bad, I only have the photos of the first visit on negatives and prints. Someday I will convert them into digital copies.

Below photo was taken on a winter noon day in Aug 2006. The colour is not quite turquoise but you get an idea of the vivid hue that makes the visitors go “Wow!” at Lake Tekapo.

(click for larger photo)
Turquoise colour of Lake Tekapo
Tekapo, Aug 2006
Across the lake lies the Southern Alps. In the centre of the photo, the distant mountain peak directly beneath the noon sun is Aoraki, Mount Cook!