Fairlie

Our next two nights were in Fairlie, 60 km west of Highway 1 on the way to Lake Tekapo. We stayed at the Pinewoods Motel where the managers are a friendly Christian couple. They offered to upgrade us for the first night only (unfortunately they were fully booked on the second) but we declined because we didn’t want to have to move our things between rooms the next day. Even the smaller room was quite comfortable, with a spacious bathroom - highly recommended. We cooked our own dinner in our room and spent the night in, reading and resting.

On Wednesday we enjoyed a lovely sleep-in and then made lunch to take with us on our drive. We headed north-west to Lake Tekapo and the town of the same name, then further west to Twizel at the southern end of Lake Pukaki. We decided not to go to Mt Cook on this trip. We loved the wildflowers growing along the road, although they’re actually considered weeds, and we weren’t the only ones; we spotted several tourists cutting heads to take away with them. On the way back through Tekapo we stopped to check out the historic church building, currently being used by three different congregations (Presbyterian, Anglican and Catholic). Dinner was again cooked in our room.