Omarama To Lake Tekapo

 << Queenstown To Omarama          Lake Tekapo To Christchurch >>

"THE ROAD TRIP"

FJORDLAND & SOUTHERN PACIFIC EXPERIENCE

Scene Location :
* Omarama
* Twizel
* Mount Cook - Glentanner
* Lake Pukaki - Peters Lookout, i-Site
* Lake Tekapo - Church of Good Shepherd, Sheepdog Memorial Statue

Total Distance :
* 200km
* Fuel - NZD30

Setting :
* Day - Crazy bright
* Night - Crazy dark

Character :
* Driver : Biqque
* Map Reader & Photographer : Shahrul
* Extra : Kambeng merino bogel, Bontot lembu comel, Mamat Asian amik gambar tak benti-benti, Anjing batu, Anjing tah mana tak nampak dalam gelap

~Page Six~
Omarama To Lake Tekapo : When We Bark To The Sun & Stars

In jacket, surf short and barefooted, I walked to the shower. My hair was disastrously tangled and untidy. It was good to get it shampooed and blow-dried.

“Time to change our look today.” I took out a set of new piece, a pair of black leggings to match with black leather jacket. Sejuk masa ni aku tak pedulik dah! Janji kacak :D

Omarama
Again, we had instant noodles and scrambled eggs for breakfast, before we drove out from the park. We refueled and stopped at the merino statue, to snap few pictures with it. Mana tau, kang tak dapat yang betul.

“Ayang, orang tengok you…” Hubby teased me. Batu ni betul-betul kat simpang jalan!

“Ah lantak lah! Janji I ada gambar dengan menatang ni. Horned merino ram tuh!” I quickly hug it.

From Omarama, we headed to Twizel and the road was insanely straight. Out of sudden, we saw a different type of sheep, not like what we’ve seen along the road trip since day one.

“Is that…”

“It’s merino!!! The moment I saw it, I knew it IS merino!” I pointed to that fluffy full wool at the neck area, and that spiral horn.

But I kept on driving, leaving behind the sheep. “So, nak patah balik tak?”

Dot dot dot.

“Nak patah balik takkkkkk? Nanti dah takde kat depan, sia-sia jer...” “OK!”

Dengan kelajuan cahaya, aku terus benti tengah jalan, undur, depan, undur, depan (sebab jalan sempit patu tanak jalan atas rumput), patah balik! Nasib baik ada satu truck tu jauh lagi. Hehehe!

I forced hubby to standby with his camera. I drove as slooooooooooooooooowly as I can. And…snapped!

“BULU DAH KENA CUKUR DAAAAAAAAA…KAHKAHKAHKAH!”

There were pool merino as well (small and no horns) and they were deliciously, eh, ridiculously cute! I can feel the warmness. Felt like hugging and choking them to death! Hahaha!

One thing about sheep that I learnt, they were soooooooo vigilant. They will keep on eating, if the car is still moving. They will suddenly raise their head, if the car is stopping. THEY WILL RUN AWAY, IF I WALK TOWARDS THEM! Not even close ok!

Twizel
We continued our journey and saw a small part of Lake Ohau, before we finally reached Twizel. There was nothing much that we could explore there, so we decided not to waste our time, but driving towards the Glentanner and Aoraki.

 

Driving towards Lake Pukaki was relaxing. The long and straight stretch didn’t bore us at all. The excitement came into the scene when we started to have a glimpse of Lake Pukaki. 

THE COLOR…*&^%$^&%!!! Apa bangang cun sangat ni wehhhhhh! Helloooooo...turqouise ke opaque ke hape ni?

We stopped at Peters Lookout to enjoy the view. THIS is what you get, when you choose for Scenic Route Road Trip! The beautiful lake, the melting snow-capped mountains, remind us how great Allah is. Allahu akbar!

 

Not for long, I saw few furry brown cows on the other side of the road. I quickly stopped the car and asked hubby to capture a photo of me, with those cute cows. But they gave me their BUTTOCKS! Joining them, sheep also gave me their BUTTS! 

Fine…

I hopped in the car and drove.

Until I saw a group of sheep, just right next to the road, behind the fence. I drove slowly and asked hubby to snap few pictures, BUT THEY RAN macam tak cukup tanah! Siut tul…amik, amik jugak gambar diorang! Ada la sekor dua yang terpinga-pinga macam nape? Nape? Sungguh tak tahan akan kecomelan diorang tu tau!

 

Mount Cook
We then drove again UNTIL we saw Mount Cook, right in front of us.

There was no car…except us.

I looked at hubby, and he looked at me.

“JOM!” Ahak! Ahak!

We parked the car by the road side, and started to jump at the middle of the road, like a mad cow! We were half conscious at this time and were about to kill a possum if we saw one. I was even having a head banging, trust me! Kahkahkah! Dah macam layan gig!

“Let’s do a tribute to possum. May they rest in peace.” (See my blog header :D)

For almost 15minutes we did the crazy thing, only one car passed by. Itupun sebab kitorang letak telinga kat atas jalan, so we can clearly hear and feel the vibration. Best gile!

Glentanner
We made a u-turn at Glentanner and didn’t proceed nearer. Well, all mountains are best to be viewed from far. Unless you have all day long to explore it.  

Lake Pukaki
After that, we stopped for a while at Lake Pukaki i-Site and brought myself a fridge magnet. There was a lookout point along the lakeside, so we grabbed this chance to stand and pose, before it.

Lake Tekapo
We reached at Lake Tekapo, early. Wow! This was the first time we reached a final destination of a particular day, earlier than we should. So we parked in front of the row of shops, and purchased few items for my family.

We looked for a spot to have our lunch and we settled at one of the parking area, where one Naked Bus, in the middle of dropping off the passengers. “Huyuh…then, kena menapak la??? Patut la ramai orang jalan kaki kat tepi jalan...”

Eating in the car, right in front of Lake Tekapo, was really enjoyable. We then walked down the road and walked closer to the thousands of stones around the lake. There were benches and places for visitors to take five. I started to act dangerously, jumping on one of the big boulder, just to get a perfect shot. Kalo jatuh, sendri mau ingat. 

From afar, we could see the Church of Good Shepherd. Hubby tried so hard to remember the nicest view that he read somewhere in the internet. He assumed that the photographer took that marvelous picture, maybe, from the other side of the lake, using a super long lens.

“Kita datang petang skit la…ramai orang, nanti gambar tak cun…”

So we headed to the holiday park and upgraded to a cabin.

Parked the car next to the cabin…and opened the door.

“HUH??? WHY SO BIG ONE??? 6 KATIL TUH!”

We drove back to the reception and asked for a smaller cabin, but they said that was the standard small-size cabin.

“But it’s only two of us…” Hoping that they will change us to the next cabin, which was smaller than what we had.

They said the price will be the same, so without further any longer, we headed back to the room. Ala, kalau dia tipu pun, kita bleh buat apa…blasah je la…

We went to the shared kitchen and started to cook for dinner. We had L&P, spaghetti and mix vege, sprinkled with salt and pepper. UMPPPPHHHHHH! DAP NYERRRRRRR! I purposely setup the picnic table, where a couple of British, joined us at the next table. 

The sun was about to go down…after we took a walk down the lakeside, we drove towards the church. Hell yeah, the church was superbly amazing! I mean, the design, the style, the location, all fell into the right place. Regardless from whichever side of the building, your photo will turn out to be miraculous! Ko amik terbalik pun cantik!

Sheepdog Memorial Statue
Hubby then reminded me about a dog statue that was called Sheepdog Memorial Statue, and it should be somewhere around the church. We looked around and finally spotted it, just behind bushes, on the left side of the church. There was small man-made walking trail, besides walking on the main road.

The dog standing motionless on the base, but the meaning behind it is priceless. It represents man best friend, in helping farmers throughout the country, looking after the hundreds and thousands of sheep.

“Huyuh, mamat Asian tu tak abis-abis lagi ke amik gambar church ngan lake tu.” We wondered how many pieces he has taken, since he arrived here.

The sun has gone down.

We drove out from the church compound and went to the other side of the bridge, where hubby finally found out the exact spot where the pro-photog took the picture…ONLY with the existence of the water in front of you, then voila!

“Tengok tu…mamat Asian tu still dok meneropong amik gambar…tak abis-abis lagi…”

“Tu baek nyer test lighting ngan shutter speed tu hahaha…”

I asked hubby to walk a bit far from the car, so that I can capture a miniature of him in between two trees.

 

When the night came, we went back to the room. The holiday park compound was really quiet and gloomy. Sungguh tenang.

TAPI TIDAK DI DAPUR!

There were two British ascent ladies, almost drunk (I presumed), having a bitching session in the kitchen, telling stories to each other, explaining why her dad calling her this, and her dad calling her that! HOI! BARU BERKENALAN KE CIK KAK?! KO DAH ABIS MASAK AND MAKAN KAN? KUAR LA! Coz the kitchen was quite small, and I pretty damn sure that masa aku goreng telur tu, minyak masak tu bleh terpercik kena diorang tau!

Minah ni kena baca adab share kitchen kat blog Fatt ni. Hahaha!

We quickly cleaned up our things, put everything in the basket, and brought out the food, back to our room. Makan kat bilik disamping heater, laaaaaaaagi best.

“Star gazing?” “JOM!” “I think, your camera je should be enough…” So I left my S5 and we brought only 550D.

Church of Good Shepherd
Once we reached the church compound, there was one campervan in front of the church. Tido free gamaknyer. At this point of time, we saw nothing. Nothing in the sense of we CAN’T see anything except for stars, coz it was TOTALLY DARK! (That's why people come here for star gazing...because of the clarity of its sky. Why bother to go to the observatory deck, when you are looking at the same sky?)

In darkness, hubby took out his camera and started to point up and shoot. One try. Two tries. Ten tries. He still failed to take any single star. The camera was incapable to focus, due to the darkness and the distance. He was struggling to change the setting, coz there was no light at all.

We were totally “blinded”. Gelap gulita. Meraba-raba.

5 minutes has passed.

“There are thousands of stars up there! Takkan satu pun tak dapat?” I started to question his camera capability. “Baik guna S5 jer, I bet bleh tangkap walaupun grainy nak mampos!” Aku dah baran.

“Bleh ni…jap…” He attached the flash and retook the pictures.

Still, unable to capture those stars up there…dapat satu dua ketul je.

“Take out the tripod. Try set shutter speed to super slow ke main ISO ke, janji dapat…” I took out the tripod and attached the camera with the base. Memang keje aku pun slalu setting tripod ni.

(Throughout the trip, this was the ONLY time that we use the tripod! Penat aku kendong, guna nyer sekali je???!!!)

I sat down on the road. In the dark. Seeing nothing, trying to place the tripod and pointing the camera up. The tripod was at my chin level. I didn’t use both, neither the viewfinder nor the screen, coz there was nothing to focus to. Too dark.

Still sat (bersila) on the road. More and more stars started to appear. Sumpah cantik! Kalau la bleh tangkap gambar ni.

Trying my luck. Captured one image.

Out of sudden…

”KONG! KONG! KONG! AUK! AUK! AUKKKKKK!” There was a dog barking somewhere around few meters away!

“HUH??? ANJING??? KAT MANA??? KAT MANAAAAA???”

“LARI! LARI MASUK KETA!”

Dengan tripod seluas kangkang, aku cabut masuk dalam keta! HAHAHAHA! Celaka tul bleh ada anjing plak kat sini! TAKKAN SHEEPDOG BATU TU JADI ANJING BETUL???

We waited for about 5 minutes before the dog stop barking. And we still can’t locate where the dog was. Takkan nak lepaskan peluang star gazing kan! So we gambled and went out from the car.

It was still dark and I quickly set up the tripod again. This time, we set the shutter speed as slow as 30seconds, with super high ISO. We knew that it will turn out to be super grainy but who cares! I want to capture the stars! (Padahal kat Mesia, tak heran pun!)

We FINALLY managed to capture those stars! Wahhh masa ni siap YES! YES! Walhal kat magnet jual kat i-Site gambar cun gile, mesti lense baekkkk nyer...

Bleh balik tido dengan tenang…sambil amik gambar souvenirs and chocolates! 

(Weh sape nak gi NZ sila roger, aku nak Whittaker’s Kiwi!)
(Whoever going to NZ, please buzz me, I want Whittaker’s Kiwi!)
Kot tak paham bahase meleis :D