Burke’s Pass

Burke’s Pass

Date: Tuesday 26 February 2013
Route: Fairly to Tekapo
Distance: 43km – and another 2km around town
Weather: high cloud in morning, hot in afternoon
Accommodation: Parkhead Motel – recommended for lakeside view

Today was another relatively short ride, and so we started late again at around 10am.
We had some atmospheric mist in the morning, but thereafter perfect conditions, if a little hot towards the middle of the day. We are now into Mackenzie country and the scenery is beautiful.

We stopped at an artists studio at Kimbell and had an interesting discussion. After a while, Kris ended up offering to help artist Lloyd Harwood to set up a new website for the gallery, which Lloyd promptly accepted. The idea is that Kris would coach Lloyd into managing the website himself.
Shortly thereafter Kris broke the second spoke of the trip – which took about an hour at the side of the road to fix.

Then onto Burkes pass – not as much of a challenge as Lewis Pass, but a long steady climb none the less. We felt we had had our exercise by the end of it. Once we got down to the other side the plain really opened up and we had spectacular scenery with the Alps in the background all the way into Lake Tekapo.

The lake is just as stunning as I remember it. Our motel is well sited on the road going past the Church of the Good Shephard, with classic views of the lake. Nice big room with all the facilities too (and he let us use his washing machine).

All Kris’s nuts have now been cracked! – we spent about an hour at the lakeside cracking the last of the hazelnuts – using stones from the lake shore.

We had a picnic type supper on our porch after examining the local restaurants – they cater for tourists (more $) and we decided we could eat better from the supermarket. Since then just been spending time watching the lake – the light over the mountains, cloud formations and colour of the water are constantly changing.

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