Tekapo is a tiny settlement of about 300 people, but in the summer it seems to swell to about 5 million with tourists. Although it’s just a roadside stop (the name itself is Maori for ‘a place to put your sleeping mat for the night’), it offers a perfect set of conditions for a tourist stop; a beautiful lake, wonderful snowy hills around, a photogenic statue of a collie dog, and an equally photographic chapel by the waterside. Don’t bother driving up the lake, though, if all you want is a better view: there isn’t one. And the local police will tell you off for parking an inch over the roadside line!
