Every day in New Zealand is more beautiful and interesting than the day before, to the point where it's almost overwhelming. After we left Duvacuhelle (sob!) we drove to Fairlie, which is near Lake Tekapo in the center of the South Island. We had wanted to spend the night on Lake Tekapo, but because of the holiday weekend every single room in the town was booked well in advance. We got the last room in Fairlie, which is about a half-hour drive away. The Fairlie hotel was actually quite fun; it's on top of a bar, like inns back in the old days. It had tiny and adorable little rooms, and the town was cute.
Lake Tekapo was BEAUTIFUL. The lake itself is a truly stunning color, because glaciers melt into it and the particles from them show up as an incredibly vivid blue. However, it is particularly known for having beautiful views of the stars, because the weather is almost always clear and cloudless there. The weather turns out to be just as perfect as we were led to believe; it was cloudy and raining in Fairlie, but we turned a corner on our drive and had arrayed before us a beautiful plain, completely clear of clouds, with a mountain range in the background. I regret not stopping for a picture then, but here is a picture we took the next day with the mountains somewhat obscured by clouds.