page_title: Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo / Background
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Blick aus der Kirche zum Guten Hirten, Lake Tekapo
context_page_description: The Church of the Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo on the South Island of New Zealand is a small Anglican church used by various denominations. Built in 1935 as a memorial church to commemorate early settlers, it is one of the most photographed items in the country. It has a Category I heritage registration by Heritage New Zealand.
context_section_description: Walter Ernest Detheridge Davies became the vicar of Fairlie in February 1933. The Fairlie cure extended up to Mount Cook Village and Davies realised that the Mackenzie Basin needed its own church; he first suggested this to parishioners in September 1933. Davies also suggested that a large window should be incorporated so that there could be a view from within the church of the lake, based on the 1930 design of St James Church at Franz Josef on the West Coast. The idea was taken up by various local runholders who thought that it would be an appropriate way of acknowledging and commemorating their pioneering ancestors. The land for the building was given by the owners of Braemar Station, which is (mostly) located on the eastern shore of Lake Tekapo. A generous amount of land belongs to the church so that the building will continue to be sited on its own. Esther Hope, a local artist from Grampians Station, provided sketch designs for the proposed church. The Christchurch architect Richard Strachan De Renzy Harman (1896–1953) based his 1933/1934 design on Hope's drawings.
caption: View from within the church
exif: {"Image Make": "PENTAX Corporation", "Image Model": "PENTAX K20D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2010:01:03 17:46:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/750", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:11:26 01:51:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:11:26 01:51:08", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "341", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2242", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1489", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "53936", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "42", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}