Back in the Mountains

The trip up to Mt. Cook National Park was very different to the trip down the West Coast, which was just on the other side of the range of mountains we were following up - instead of rainforest, it was barren scrubland which was rugged yet still beautiful. The coach drove all the way up past Lake Pukaki to get to the Mt. Cook Village. The water is a strange turqoise colour because of the "rock flour" which is sediment washed down from the glaciers that floats in the water.

Mt. Cook Village is tiny and it's in a virtual cul-de-sac of huge snowcapped mountains. The main ones are Mt. Sefton, Mt. Footstool, Mt Wakefield, Mt. Dobson (my favourite!), Mt. Tasman and, of course, Mt. Cook. It's another destination popular with the koreans and the Japanese which meant that it was pretty pricey.

As it was a wonderful sunny day, I decided to walk up the hooker valley - sadly there were no prostitutes anywhere - I wore my lucky pants for nothing! There was a memorial by the start of the track which showed all the people who had died on the mountains - it seems that people die here all the time - I also saw on the news that an extreme skier had skied from the summit of Mt. Cook the day before I was there - with people like that living here, is it any wonder that people die here all the time?!

The walk was flat and pretty easy (by my recent standards) and I was overtaking people with gusto - I even passed Keith and Jane (an english married couple who Seb and I met aboard the Milford Wanderer - they are travelling for 7 months whilst visiting their two sons. One is in New Zealand and the other is in Australia) but not before I stopped for a little chat.

I had to cross a couple of swingbridges to get to the Hooker Lake and the wind was extreme and fierce - much worse than when Colin "Cannoncrack" farted on my head when I was 8 years old. The view at the end of the track was priceless: Mount Cook towering over the Hooker Glacier and the milklike waters of the Hooker Lake, which were at my feet, had huge chunks of ice that had fallen from the glacier that resembled little icebergs. There was also a huge overhanging glacier to the left that loomed over the lake and in the sparce vegetation there were clusters of Mount Cook Lillies (which are actually like white buttercups). It was simply breathtaking.

The following day the rain and the wind made the outdoors a no-go area. I was glad that the YHA I was staying in was well equipped for this kind of situation as they had the biggest video collection I have ever seen in a hostel - They even had Back to the Future and The Three Amigos! I invented a new sandwich combo in my boredom - peanut butter and dried banana - crunchy yet satisfying - and I also watched Castaway which is not a great idea to watch when you are due to fly over Fiji in a plane within the next week or so! It has influenced me to shave less though.I also tried to ring my Mum but she was in Malta on a cruise ship for work - who knows...... maybe she's going to be the next Jane McDonald?!

The following day was the 5th November - Fireworks Night. Sadly, they don't celebrate it the same way here (i.e. nobody was trying to knock off the neighbours chimney pot like we used to do to the Holsts at Lower Farm Road). But then again, I missed it last year as well - I was in Prague on Rich's stag do, but I'm not allowed to talk about that!

The sun had his hat on again so I checked out of the hostel and I walked up to Kea Point which had great views of Mt. Sefton and Mt. Footstool and it also had a towering cliff of silt and moraine dust from the glaciers that imposed on the view of Mt. Cook in the distance.

On the way back, I bumped into Katia and Dietmar from Germany who Seb and I had crossed paths with throughout our time in New Zealand. They were walking the Hooker Valley walk that I had done 2 days previously - they asked how long it would take and I casually told them that it should take about 3 hours. They had offered me a lift to Lake Tekapo when they got back from their walk, however, I had miscalculated how long the walk should have taken! It was more like 4 hours! By the time they got back, I was worried that they had either gone without me or got injured on the track - thankfully it was neither (not everyone can be superhuman like me!) and they delivered me to Lake Tekapo safely.

Lake Tekapo is a sleepy little place that has a little picturesque church and a statue of a dog and........... that's it really. The YHA was simple (as were the british couple attemting to play Cluedo behind me as I write this up!) but the views from the hostel were spectacular - It looked out across Lake Tekapo to Mt Cook and Mt Tasman.

As I hadn't planned to do much, I didn't do much! I contemplated a walk but sitting by the lake was enough to satisfy me. I'm coming into my last week in New Zealand and Fiji is just around the corner - I can almost smell the coconuts!