Lake Tekapo

Tekapo Lake and Mackenzie Lake Travel and Visitor's Guides On-line. Accommodations, Things to do and Information.

Tekapo's website contains over 100 pages of information about Tekapo. The Lake Tekapo is located in the Mackenzie Country, on New Zealand's main South Island. The international Christchurch International Park is only 3 hours away by car and New Zealand's most famous tourism destination, State Highway 8, runs through Lake Tekapo and offers an excellent view of New Zealand as it should be seen "naturally".

Just a few steps from Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook is the group of the highest summits in New Zealand, bordering the lake and providing a wonderful setting for some of the best scenery in the canyon.

Good Shepherd's Basilica

Lake Tekapo, scenic by night and scenic by midday, is part of a UNESCO Dark Sky Reserve and the ideal place for stargazers. The Lake Tekapo lies about three hour's car ride southwest of Christchurch in the Mackenzie basin. Located just above the striking lake of cyan to the northern side of the Southern Alps is theownship.

Tekapo Lake gets its intensive milky-turquoise color from the finely milled stone powder (ground from glaciers) floating in the lake.

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Situation of Lake Tekapo. Tekapo Lake is the second biggest of three approximately parallely shaped lagoons that run from north to south along the northerly rim of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's southern island (the others are Lake Pukaki and Lake Ohau). This lake is supplied at its northerly end by the woven Godley River, which has its spring in the southern Alps in the far north.

It is a favourite holiday spot and several resorts are situated in the community of Lake Tekapo at the lake's southerly end. Canterbury' s environmental managed Lake Tekapo Regional Park is situated on the lake's southside shoreline. There is an astronomical observation tower at Mount John, which is situated in the northern part of the city and just South of Lake Alexandrina.

Initially the lake discharge was at the south end, into the river Tekapo. 1938 began the building of a plant that was supposed to be completed in 1943, but was stopped by the 1942-worldwar. In 1944 work was resumed and today's "Tekapo A" plant was connected to the grid in 1951.

The lake waters are led through a 1.4-kilometer long underground tunnels under the city to the plant, where the waters were initially recycled into the stream. When the Upper Waitaki hydropower plant was developed in the seventies, the waters are now channelled into a 26-kilometer-long channel leading to Tekapo B on the shore of Lake Pukaki.

Today, the plant generates an annual output of 160 GW on a 25.2 MW output alternator. On the shore of Lake Tekapo there is the Good Shepherd's Chapel, which was the first chapel in the Mackenzie basin in 1935.

Christchurch architects R.S.D. Harman created the Lake Tekapo Chapel according to designs by Esther Hope, a native of Christchurch. One of the most frequently pictured churches in New Zealand, the chapel has an alter opening onto the lake and mountain. The Roundhill ski area is located on the northern side of the lake, 24 km from the municipality of Tekapo. It is mainly aimed at beginners and advanced riders.

"Shepherd' s Church."