Lake Tekapo (Takapō)

Fine glacial flour gives Lake Tekapo its milky blue-green water, set against the snowy peaks of the Southern Alps. From late November into December, purple and pink lupins often line the shore, and at night the lake sits within the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. Unlike the sheer walls and deep water of Milford Sound, this is a pale lake in an open basin, where flowers and stars take turns with the seasons. Lupins are an invasive introduced species: pretty to look at, but not native ecology.