I awoke to another perfect day. I think apart from diving with dolphins this stunning light blue lake with the idyllic Church of the Good Shepherd would have to be my favourite destination so far. Animals aside it would definitely be my favourite destination. I was mesmerised. I could just sit on the side of the lake and drown in the beauty of it. I headed around the lake & took yet more photos including a couple of lovely mirror ones when the water was perfectly still. I thought I should get some excercise & took a steadyish, steep walk (lucky there was no Jessica this time as she is far fitter than me and this walk took me a lot longer than it would have taken her as I needed to keep stopping to get my breath - and to constantly admire the view) to the top of Mt John where I could look down on the lake and get the view. What a magnificent view it was. This lake is not a complete glacial lake like Lake Pukaki is (& therefore not quite as powdery pale blue although not far different) but it is mostly glacial which is where this truly exquisite colour comes from. Unfortunately there is no way my photos are unable to show you the full extent of what I saw as I only have a point and shoot whereas one would need a wide angle lens for this. The site of this body of pale blue water was positively breathtaking. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would have an experience like this. I understand that this is a great skiing place in the winter and although it would be freezing cold I imagine that the site of the lake after a heavy snowstorm would be just magical.
When I got back down to town I went back to the gorgeous Church of the Good Shepherd & the Collie statue (dedicated to the collie dog for its invaluable contribution to the grazing of this mountain country) and spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures from all angles and getting human free ones wherever possible. This did require a fair amount of patience as I am sure you can believe that this is a pretty popular tourist attraction but my patience did indeed pay off and I was fortunate enough to get quite a few good ones much to my delight.
I had a relaxed evening, having the pasta that I had been craving in Queenstown & watching the wonderful sunset before heading off to bed with a little sadness in my heart that this wonderful little journey that I had done around this magnificent country was almost at it's end.
I was up bright and early the next morning to board the Magic Bus for the last time as we headed back to Christchurch where I would be meeting Caren and spending the next 9 days with her and her family over Christmas and New Year.
