Day 12 Thursday - Back to Christchurch

Star gazing down at the lakeside last night was superb. We lay on our backs and admired a dark sky full of bright stars - this area is a dark sky reserve where light pollution is banned by law and it makes a big difference.   Whatever constilations we saw they were beautiful and abundant.

Our first visit today was at Mount John Observatory for which you take a steep road that reminded me of Corney Fell (Gary will get this reference 😉).

At the summit it appears a very futuristic landscape with buildings housing powerful telescopes.  The view is a marvelous 360 degree vista of mountains, Mackenzie country and Lake Tekapo and town below.

Next we set off towards Christchurch and much of the drive was through farming country - we took the scenic route which was very quiet and had us counting sheep.

It took about 3.5 hours to get to the city and we dropped our luggage at hotel then returned the hire car.  Close to the airport is the International Antarctic Centre so we visited this for the reminder of the afternoon - and after 2 weeks summer heat we cooled right down as we experienced a simulated Antarctic storm in the snow dome, met husky dogs and penguins, had a ride on an all terrain vehicle around an assault course and saw a cool 4D movie where we got sprayed with water and snowed on!

We had Cantonese for supper, then back to do laundry - need clean clothes for Oz ✈️