Our first night was “interesting”. We’ve decided that because it’s just the two of us, we’ll keep our bed permanently made up at the back of the van, and using seating around the dining table as our main “living” area.

This meant the rear lounge area was converted into a double bed (east-west orientation) made up of lots of different size and shape squabs.

Apart from the fact I really don’t enjoy sleeping on saggy, baggy scrunched up sheets, every time Alan rolled over, so the squab beneath him moved such that it didn’t take many rolls, for there to end up with a gaping hole between us.

Somehow Alan managed to stay on the fat squabs while I was left with the narrow ones – and the big fat gap in between.

Return Trip to Rental Place to Fix Things That Don’t Work

Alan spent an amazing amount of time last night researching why the central locking remote control didn’t work. It worked one way but not the other – it would unlock, but not lock. He determined it was something to do with the Blutooth signal.

Much to our horror, we discovered the dining table latch didn’t ‘latch’ – we lent on the table only to send everything that was on it, flying across the van to the floor. Eeeeek! Fortunately, nothing broke.

Geraldine – Barkers of Geraldine Fame

After spending (wasting?) a few hours at the rental place we were finally able to start our holiday.

Barkers of Geraldine is a world-famous-in-New-Zealand family owned business

Population	2,970
Location	Canterbury Region – approx 140 km south of Christchurch

Lake Tekapō

Church of the Good Shepherd

We arrived at the Instagram-famous Church of the Good Shepherd ahead of a bus load of tourists with enough time to take some half-way reasonable photos of this beautiful little church on the shores of Lake Tekapō.

Dark Sky Project

The weather was starting to turn “dubious” and any visit to the Dark Sky Project ‘crater’ experience requires clear skies.

I opted for the Crater Experience as everything else was fully booked to wayyyy out in November.

Man! What an experience!

We walked in from our campsite (Lakes Edge Holiday Park Camping Ground) to the Dark Sky Project (1.7km) along the lovely paved walkway.

Would I recommend the Dark Sky Project – absolutely! Yes! So much so that if / when we’re next in Tekapo, I’d do it again – although with a bit of planning so we can do the top o’ the line Summit Experience.