Travel blog: New Zealand's Mackenzie Country and Lake Tekapo

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she is reporting from New Zealand. Here is her 19th blog entry:

Once again I got up early (when was getting on the Magic Bus not early the little voice in my head says...) to leave lovely Dunedin with its very steep hilly streets behind.

But I couldn't leave before visiting the world's steepest street – Dunedin's own Baldwin Street.

Apparently a couple of years back a few teenagers got drunk one night and thought that it might be funny to do a Johnny Knoxwille-like stunt and ride in a wheelie-bin down Baldwin St.

Well, to cut a long story short, two of those boys died, the other one ended up in a wheelchair.

So perhaps you can imagine how steep this road actually is. The Kiwis, being Kiwis, hold an annual event where they throw 1,000 tennis balls down Baldwin St and people try to run uphill against them.

Whoever reaches the top of the hill first wins a prize. I had a good look at that road and I have to say you'd have to pay me a lot of money to try that.

From Dunedin we started cruising onwards through to Moeraki, the famous coastline scattered with large spherical boulders.

The Moeraki Boulders are not like ordinary round boulders that have been shaped by rivers and the pounding seas.

These boulders are classed as septarian concretions and were formed in ancient sea floor sediments.

They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls, where layers of material cover a central nucleus or core, creating very large, round and interesting looking boulders on this particular coastline.

We stopped there for breakfast and to take a few photos of this rather strange phenomenon before heading onwards through to the famous Mackenzie Country.

James Mackenzie was a shepherd and sheep thief who originated in Scotland and came to fame by stealing over 3,000 sheep with only one sheep dog (which was called Friday).

It took a long time to catch him and he hid for many years in this dry and vast country of the Waitaki district.

Mackenzie rode a bull rather than a horse and legend has it that he put horseshoes onto the hooves of his bull - backwards. Supposedly that meant it took a while for the authorities to track him down.

In the end he was jailed and then released from prison under the condition that he would leave the country.

Later his name was mentioned in Australia - probably a country more suited to his sheep thieving habits (no offence).

The Mackenzie country is to this day famous for sheep herding and also for its proximity to Mount Cook.

The entry point to this region is the small town of Fairlie and the difference in colour and vegetation here once again left me stunned.

Let's face it, New Zealand is not a large country but the variety of vegetation, colours, mountains, oceans and seas, valleys, wood and grassland is all a wonderful mix that will not leave you untouched by its unique beauty.

The area in and around Mount Cook was also extensively used in the Lord of the Rings films and tours are of course available if that is your kind of thing.

Reaching Lake Pukaki we were once again left open-mouthed by the scenery of the glacier lakes.

The glaciers grind the stones beneath their ice cover and the lakes are fed with ice-cold, turquoise water filled with the sediment from the glacier. The colour of this water is like nothing you have ever seen.

Lake Tekapo is a 45 minutes drive away and there we stayed in a Magic Bus purpose-built hostel in the village, which has a population of only around 400 people.

I decided that it was time to get away from people for a bit and hiked up Mount John, which is located next to the hostel.

It was a great way to get away for a bit and soak in the views of Lake Tekapo. Afterwards I treated myself to a soak in the natural hot tubs at the foot of the mountain for NZ$12 (£4.80).

Lake Tekapo offered the tranquillity and peace I had been looking for after the busy party evenings in Queenstown so I decided to stay for two nights and get some rest.

I did play with the idea of hiking up towards Mount Cook or taking a Heli-hike but simple maths put my cravings for yet more alpine adventures to rest very quickly as the cheapest helicopter flight is NZ$260 (£104).

Our hostel was located right by the lakeshore so I rented a mountain bike and cycled around the lake for a day, taking some amazing photos before heading back to the hot tubs.

At night the rabbits came out to say hello as well as hedgehogs and all sorts of other animals. The area is very peaceful and a great place to get some well-deserved rest.

On the lakeshore there is a world famous stone church which is apparently one of the most photographed churches in the world - right behind St Peters in Rome and Notre Dame in Paris.

Near the Church of the Good Shepherd is a bronze statue of a collie sheep dog, honouring the shepherding skills of mans' best friend.

Apart from that there is not all that much to do in lovely Lake Tekapo apart from Lord of the Rings tours, heli-hikes, full-day hikes up to Mount Cook, natural hot springs, well-marked tramping paths and horse trekking.

For me it was time to move on to complete my loop of New Zealand's South Island, returning to Christchurch and Kaikoura before crossing the Cook Strait and reaching Wellington a couple of days later.

Anna Kainberger