This next post might be kind of lengthy but I'm going to try to keep it reasonable. Our night in LakeTekapo was one of the coldest of them all but fortunately it didn't rain. 

Waking up at Lake Tekapo

Our camp (by the way our tent is a three person tent so we had to jam our 5 selves inside , conglomerate all our blankets and huddle for warmth, :) it was very cold sleeping on the edge.) 

We started out our morning by going into the small town of Tekapo and grabbing a bite to eat, charging our gear, accessing the internet and putting a game plan together. We decided to check out the lake shore and a popular church that sat right on the lake. Once we arrived at the lake we were amazed at the turquoise water and the beautiful contrasting yellow trees. That's one thing that I feel makes New Zealand unique. It's a semi tropical environment but some of the trees still turn colors in the fall. So you get trees that look like palm trees with fall colored trees right next to them. At the lake we took photos and skipped rocks.

Church

Shore of Lake Tekapo 

Inside the church

Church on Lake Tekapo

Yellow trees and blue lakes

Gabriel skipping rocks

Next we drove to a more secluded area of rocky shore where we could find a place to hang our wet things our and take a very cold bath. 

My temporary dryer

Getting clean in the cold refreshing waters of Tekapo

Duck

After the lake we decided to go check out the star observatory. That was one of the main reasons we decided to visit Tekapo on the day that we did. It was supposed to be a clear night. The city is built as to be mindful of the star observatory. All the lights in the small town are reflected in a manner so there is no light pollution in the sky. As we later found out the stars look absolutely amazing there. We got to the top of the observatory area, checked it out and were deciding to leave when the Sassin Saab figured she would give us a bit of a heart attack. 

First I should give a bit of background on our main mode of transportation. When we got the car we knew we had to change the spark plugs. But being stubborn procrastinating college students that never happened. We got a good deal on the Saab but she has definitely taken some wear and tear. She is no longer in her prime. In a sense we were giving her, her last scenic trip before she probably bites the dust. Since she is a little older she tends to have some attitude and will sass us every now and then, so we have to giver a little motivating gas every time we start up. 

So we were parked at the top of a large hill next to the observatory (which was going to be closing to the public in 15 minutes) and the Saab decided she didn't want to start. We tried over and over and over again but she wasn't having it. One thing we did learn, as we got to know her more and more throughout our trip, is that Saaby had a thing for Gabe. D.J. was originally going to drive but as an act of desperation we decided to let Gabe have a go at it. We had less than five minutes left other wise we were considering trying to push her down in neutral. So Gabe took the seat and began sweet talking her. He then took out his keys and whispered a little something to em and gave it a kiss to try to caress the Saab. Next thing you know she was up and running with a turn of the key and couple pumps of gas. Apparently Gabes key just is fits better, but man that Saab can be a bitch sometimes. I think it was because she was just enjoying the scenery and wasn't ready to leave.

View from the observatory (the lake is near the area where we star gazed later that night)

Gabe taking it in, that is the town and Lake Tekapo below him

It was beginning to get dark and we weren't sure what to do as we awaited the night to come so we could see the sparkling display of stars. We decided to go and watch the sunset, so we drove along a gravel road out past the observatory and came to a spot where we thought the sun would look pretty good. Apparently we decided to park by a military base as military trucks carrying troops kept passing us as we watched the sun drop below some mountains.

Our warning (It reads: Military target area, Do not touch anything,  It may explode, And kill you)

A military vehicle 

 After watching the sun set we went back into town to grab a bite to eat. We got the typical fish and chips at a local shop. The sky was nearly completely clear and we were now waiting for it to be absolutely dark. Once it was we decided our best bet to observe the stars was back out by the observatory in the mountains and hills, so that's where we went. After driving for about 15-20 minutes along the road we found a place we could pull over. That first glance up to the sky nearly knocked me on my ass. It was absolutely incredible. I can honestly say I have never seen a night sky so clear and beautiful. We grabbed out a couple blankets and laid them on the ground then we ourselves laid down and stared at the sky. Satellites soared across the sky and shooting stars would occasionally burst across into the scene. The constellations are different in the southern hemisphere so we began making up some of our own. The milky way looked like somebody took a paint brush and wiped it across the sky leaving billions of tiny glowing spheres in its wake. Orion was as clear as ever and he stood in the sky pointing his bow at eternity. We simply laid there and talked about the sky for a good 30 minutes to an hour. I wish my writing skills were better because I cannot find the words to describe the way the night sky look and how it made me feel. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but I couldn't capture this on camera (I don't have the technical ability and from what I know the equipment I had wasn't quite up to par), which is also a shame cause I don't think I have the writers touch to think of a thousand words that would actually portray what we saw. So that's it. (Notes: at 9 o'clock it was supposed to be the clearest time of the night)

Anyways we finally peeled ourselves away from the night sky and continued on as we had to find a place to camp for the night. So once again we were aimlessly driving in the dark on the road to Queenstown (that was our next destination). From what I understand we were driving through a gorge because we could see large dark hills that were outlined in the clear night sky. After (this is a rough estimate) an hour or so of driving we found a clearing along the high way and pulled off to the back end of it to sort of hide ourselves from the road. We set up camp and Gabe made a fire but no one was really up for it. We crammed our five bodies into the three person tent and capped our great day in Tekapo. Date 4/11/12 (11/4/12 in NZed).

I may have missed some stuff (as is the same with most of my posts) so I may occasionally add things to my posts.

http://www.odt.co.nz/the-regions/north-otago/81799/tekapo-night-sky-closer-world-heritage-staus - this talks about Lake Tekapo a little bit.