If there’s any day you feel like you’ve arrived in the New Zealand you see in the postcards, this is it. Lake Tekapo is the first big breathtaking lake you’ll get to in South Island if you take this route and the USP for most visitors is stargazing, so make sure you get there a few hours before sunset for a Dark Sky Project experience and a wander around the shoreline before some pre-bed stargazing. We lay on the ground close to the lake, following the tips we’d gathered on our tour earlier, before grabbing a customary shot of New Zealand’s most famous church, the Church of the Good Shepherd, on the edge of the water.