2X Woods Christmas Vacation-Narnia, Lakes, Flowers, Mountains. The road trip is now real. Day 3

Today we left Christchurch and headed inland. Because New Zealand is the size of California, we will do 4-6 hours of driving a day, to see what we have included on our itinerary.

Our first stop of the day was actually recommended by our landlord. A place called Castle Hill, up in the foothills, not near much of anything.  If any of you have seen the movie, Narnia, this is the background for the final battle scenes in the first movie.  It was such a beautiful day. The area stunning. And typical New Zealand, you can walk all over it, no restrictions, and no fees.

Not sure what the weather would bring going up the canyon.

Lots of Woods Tshirts.

Even though the rocks are on a sheep station, people seem to respect that and stay on the paths just around the rocks.

Boys climbing to the highest rock (of course)

Reese found her own stage to perform on

I was Reese's chosen partner for this journey. Behind the rock was her own little "Heidi" valley, with flowers and grass. She didn't want to leave it. Even JoEllen couldn't find us here.

Sometimes princesses need to be carried.

Recognize this from the movie?

We made it to the top.

The whole gang.

We then headed toward Lake Tekapo, which is quite a beautiful lake. On the way there, we kept finding small clumps of Lupine in the fields going wild. We hit the jackpot at Lake Tekapo. We took a much needed break there, got in some rock skipping, toes in the water, then on down the road.

Lake Tekapo

Beautiful day here, clouds and rain on the other side.

Rare view of the red billed Arizona lazy lizard.

Historic chapel by the lake

Realizing that we really are here in such a beautiful spot.

Rock skipping contest. It was hard, no flat rocks.

Huge lupine fields here.

                                 

The next stop was Lake Pukaki. It is a long, narrow lake, actually most of it is a reservoir (with a dam), for power use.  Just past the north end of the lake is Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. 12,218 feet (3724 meters). It actually looked more impressive near the south end of the lake than up close, because we could get more of the lake, and low hills in the photos to show how high it really is.

At south end of Lake Pukaki. It was quite cool here. Mt Cook in background.

Mt. Cook

Mt. Cook

Mt. Cook, lake view

With a tourist stranded on the roadway.

Pastoral view of Mt. Cook

We still had a couple of hours to get to motel. We stopped in a small town called Twizel, and ate kebabs from a food truck. (it was even recommended on Trip Advisor)