Lake Tekapo & Mt. Cook

This weekend we had a FABULOUS weekend camping adventure!! There were five cars packed with (mostly) international students heading out to Lake Tekapo for hiking and camping. My car left first, and we had another car following us, we were planning on meeting the other three cars there (it was a three hour drive). Well our driver, Richard, got the highways mixed up and we somehow ended up at Lake Coleridge instead, which is northwest, when we wanted to go southwest. So after that nice three hour detour, it took us another three hours or so to get to Lake Tekapo! Here's Lake Coleridge:

Well when we got to Lake Tekapo it was already 4:00 or so, so we decided to camp by the lake instead of hiking up to the campground. We ended up with two of the cars, the third was who-knows-where. In total there were close to 20 of us hiking at the lake. We went swimming in the world's clearest water (even though it was freezing!) and I got to play around with my GoPro some more :)

Carl - Norway

Me, Haley, and Sydney (WA, WI, CA)

As we ate dinner we got to watch the sunset which was BEAUTIFUL.

Then the stars came out which were absolutely unreal. I'll post a photo of what they looked like, but we didn't take this. You clearly see the ENTIRE Milky Way, and the tents were silhouetted, and it was unforgettable. All 20 of us, representing seven? different countries, watching the stars for hours.

Photo credit: Derek Rowley

Most of the crew! Photo cred to Carl

Photo cred: Carl. Probably the best shot we got :)

Then it got super freezing cold, and since Holly and I don't have tents yet, we spent the night huddled under two blankets, freezing our butts off. Most people slept outside with their sleeping bags in a big pile, but that wasn't going to happen for us hahaha. We all woke up before the sunrise and got to watch the sunrise together.

We were out of camp by 9:30 and headed off to Mt. Cook, stopping by Lake Pukaki on the way.

At Mt. Cook we did a short walk/hike to Hooker Lake, which was gorgeous. Very Lord of the Rings-y. :) It took us about two hours total walking there and back, but we spent quite some time at the glacial lake. The Norwegians, Yoka (Denmark), and Jack (USA) all went swimming, but they're crazy.

Driving up to Mt. Cook

Hooker Lake

A view on our hike <3

The squad!

I had an absolutely incredible weekend, definitely my favourite thus far!! Even though I got no sleep, it was SO COOL. And all the people are fantastic, here we all are!

Left to right (ish): Jacob (NY, USA), Lauren (CO, USA), Sverre (Norway), Clem (France), Richard (CA, USA & Taiwan), Tasia (Canada), Holly (NH, USA), Carl (Norway), Lisa (Germany), Hakon (Norway), and me in front (WA, USA)! Not featured: Ahmed (Egypt), Caleb (CO, USA), Haley (WI, USA), and Sydney (CA, USA)

Check out my video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydhnW0oUje0

ALL PHOTOS BY ME UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED