Akaroa to Mount Cook

Our first stop on our NZ adventure was a small French town called Akaroa. On the drive here we had amazing views, which got even better when we got to our campsite. From our van we could see over the lagoon and the town. We went for a walk into the town where there wasn't too much to do, but we still enjoyed the walk. That night I felt more tremors, Colin was oblivious as usual.
In the morning we left Akaroa and followed the coast for a bit before heading inland towards the mountains. We stopped for lunch at a rest area, but stayed in our van as the weather wasn't great. I wandered off a few minutes when I saw mushrooms that look like they belong in fairyland or Marioland and I've put a photo of it below.
We also drove through Geraldine as we'd been told it's a cute little town, but as it was Sunday not too much was open. It was still nice to wander round.
We stopped in Fairlie that night and again had time to wander round the town, but didn't get too far before the rain started. We got back to our camp building and went inside for shelter. Next thing we knew lightening struck and the power for all of the town went out. It felt like the lightening was right above our heads. After trying to wait it out we ended up running back to our van, as our new bigger camper has the facilities to cook inside. So we had cooked, washed up and got ready for bed before the power came back on late that evening.
The next morning someone told us they often get rain like this and powercuts, but usually the power's only out for an hour or so.
Back on the road we drove towards Lake Tekapo, which is a lake formed from the melting snow. The view over the lake was spectacular and it has a really pretty little church on the banks of the lake. The weather was perfect and we took loads of photos here.
We didn't think the scenery would get much better than this as we carried on through the mountains, then we arrived at lake Pukaki with a view of Mount Cook in the distance. This was even more amazing than the last lake and we took even more photos and stopped for lunch. It was lovely to sit in front of such a beautiful place and eat lunch.
After lunch we drove closer to Mt Cook, along the lake, and the closer we got the more we could see of the beautiful glaciers.
At this point we were so excited about NZ and all the scenery we'll see and the funny thing is that we haven't even done any of the "lonely planet's must see" sites.
Now let me say that I know some of these photos are postcard beautiful and that you guys might not believe that we've taken them ourselves, but these are ours, no lies!
After leaving Mt Cook we found a campsite in Omarama.