Lake Tekapo and Geraldine

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06-10 November 2025

On the Way North to Lake Tekapo

On day two in New Zealand Robert commented that it feels very normal to be here. Bonnie had been thinking the same thing. Bonnie spent a very good year of high school here as an exchange student in a small country town on the North Island. This is her fourth trip back. This is Robert’s third trip to New Zealand. Lots of fishing each time. It’s late spring here. Some of the grasses on the hills are still green. Lots of flowers in bloom.

Stops Along the Way

Note to self: don’t stop here for lunch in Queenstown. Terrible.
School uniforms alla Harry Potter.
Robert restocked on leaders at NZ Hunting and Fishing.

Taras: A Touch of Martha Stewart

Along the road in the middle of nowhere, we came across a completely unexpected trio of cute stores: a cafe, a shop for nicely designed wool clothing, and a gourmet country store. Pleasant folks. A good flat white and a pastry. Also the former home of Shrek, the famous Merino sheep who survived on his own in the high country for six years before being captured and sheared.

In homage to Shrek, a Merino sheep out in the backcountry for six years!
Bonnie’s first wool purchase. Excellent.

Lake Tekapo

Lodging

Our hotel in Lake Tekapo is a somewhat glamorous mega complex just outside the Lake Tekapo village center. It caters to tour groups. Mainly Chinese. Most are headed by bus to the national park at Mount Cook for the day.

The town of Lake Tekapo sits at the foot of an eerily blue lake with a view of the tallest snow-topped mountains in New Zealand. The permanent population hovers between 400 and 600. A two-block-long strip of cafes and tourist shops is barely adequate to serve the visitors, so every night there is a scramble to get a dinner table before six pm, and the single grocery store is mobbed. Nearly all the servers here and in other small towns are foreign. Over just a few days we chatted with young women from Spain, Chili, Austria, England, France, Arkansas, China, and Croatia.

This and Thats

Four Square grocery store a half hour before 8 pm closing is a mad house.
Tekapo Blue
Much photographed church from 1935—a memorial to pioneers.
Sunday drive on a gravel road with one-lane bridges
One-lane bridges everywhere
These Australian immigrants can devastate the vegetation.

Eating

Choices are slim in Lake Tekapo, especially if you avoid anything dairy—Bonnie, not Robert.

Good place for lunch!
Mentioned in the New York Times last week.
Abe may have smiled at this.
Sanga sausage roll —The best sausage roll ever!
Everyone is on cell phones.

On the Way to Geraldine

Scotty, our fishing guide, recommended a stop along the way at the Fairlie Bakehouse, renowned on the South Island for award-winning meat pies. They bake 2,500 pies a day, employing 65 staff.
James Mackenzie, an outlaw convicted of stealing 1,000 sheep. The region is named for him and here in Fairlie he and his dog are memorialized in a statue. Gotta love New Zealand.
Whoever has the traffic cone contract on the South Island is doing very well. Lots of road work. An abundance of cones at each site.

Geraldine

This little town is heavy on charm. It was mentioned briefly in a New York Times travel article last week. The highlights are the Vicarage Inn, the IKEA-like Verde cafe behind it, and the cheese shop across the street. Also a nice bookstore. We made a one-night stop on our way to Hanmer Springs.

Lodging

The elegant Vicarage Inn
WiFi coded lock boxes.
Inspiration from the last season of White Lotus?
Tree planted by the first settler.
Main retail block
This impressive pharmacy filled a prescription for Bonnie.
Lots of rhodies and roses already in bloom

Eats

The most glamorous outfit Bonnie has spotted.
Lunch along the way to Hanmer Springs

Next stop-Hanmer Springs

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