The drive to Mount Cook was one of my favorites in New Zealand. There is just something about the open prairies with tourquoise blue lakes and snow-covered mountains that is just stunning.
We were very lucky that is was this calm and clear to get these photos. I think they are better than the ones that get taken on Lake Matheson from the West Coast.
We continued up the road to the DOC campsite nestled right in the valley where a glacier once lived, a sweet spot.
That night after a few brews with our fellow Canadian travellers we decided to go on a star-gazing tour to find out what we had been looking at through the sunroof of our van for the last 4 months. We first headed to a digital planetarium where an astronomer went through the major stars and constellations in the sky, the milky way, other galaxies that can be seen, and an overview of the universe. I hadn't really thought of a lot of things he talked about, but it sure was intriguing and makes a person feel quite small. There has to be other life out there.
From the Internet
We then headed out to the airport and looked at some things in a big telescope. The moon was almost full so it diluted out a lot of the stars and milky way that night but the view of the moonlit mountains was unbelievable. Here are some pics off the internet showing some of the things we looked at.
The Southern Cross (on the New Zealand and Australian flags)
The Milky Way
Saturn through the telescope - quite cool
The Moon
The "Tarantula" which was a group stars forming many arms
The next morning we got up and decided that we would try and book a spot in the Mueller hut that night since we heard that it is incredible at sunset/sunrise. We got the last 4 out of 5 spots, so we were in luck. We got back to each of our vans and started packing for the hike. It was a 3.5 hour ascent up to Mueller hut. And by up I mean almost straight up. There first were stairs and then it proceeded to scrambling over large rocks. It was quite a hard go and our legs were feeling like jello by the end. We were rewarded with beautiful views all the way up though.
An encouraging sign at the bottom.
Mueller Hut
We got up to the hut late in the afternoon and had a celebratory beer for our efforts. It was mostly North Americans staying at the hut which was much different from the norm. We spent a couple hours chatting with the other wanderers. That evening we hiked up the ridge for some fantastic 360 degree views.
The sunset did not disappoint. It was magical.
Mt. Cook
The moon rising
We spent the rest of the night playing cards and chatting with randoms. It was another sleepless night in a hut. Jamming 14 people into a small room just isn't the best sleeping environment, but it is a necessary evil. We actually got up in time for the sunrise as well which also did not disappoint.
Moonset
As you can see, it was worth getting up early for. After breakfast and a bit more chatting, we made the descent down to the camp ground which took a bit less time than it took to climb up.
After a break in the camp ground, we decided along with Alex and Tristan, that we would head back to the Twizel area. Before we had headed up to Mount Cook, I had some luck catching a couple salmon in the channels around the area. The channels have been constructed for hydroelectricity. There are a few salmon farms in the channels and people fish outside the farms to catch some of the escapees. I didn't have any luck that afternoon though. The next morning Alex and Tristan headed towards the West Coast while we decided to stay in the area for a couple of days. I tried fishing again that afternoon, but no luck again.
The next morning I decided to get up before sunrise in order to get out fishing at around sunrise to see if that made a difference.....and it did make a real difference. The fishing were biting like crazy, so it was a fun morning.
Salmon Farm
This was the one afternoon I wasn't having any luck, so I decided
to try right next to the farm....didn't work.
We decided to head in the direction of Queenstown that day after I was finished fishing. We stayed at a DOC camp site that was out in the mountains.
The next morning we decided we would head to Glenorchy to check out some of the scenery. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit had some scenes filed in the area. It is also the location of the start of one of the Great Walks - the Routeburn and another hike known as the Rees-Dart Track, but these are multi-day hikes and we didn't have the time before we started work. It was a nice drive out into the boonies.
I stopped and chatted with a hunter who had been out calling for deer. He thought it would be another week until there was full rut as the weather had been too warm lately to bring it on. We also gave a French girl a ride 10 kms down the road so she wouldn't have to walk. She has been hiking her way through the South Island, a total of 1550 kms!! There are back-country huts all over the country and she had been mostly staying in them and she may have been smelling a little over ripe. ha.
After checking out the area, we headed south to Invercargill to start our job in a couple of days. We have settled into a place called Centre Bush. It is the second of three places we have lived for work that has sheep in the town. We can definitely say we are experiencing the rural kiwi culture!
Until next time......
P.S. - Aoraki is the Maori name for Mount Cook which translated in English means Cloud Piercer. It is New Zealand's highest peak at 3754 meters. Edmund Hillary, who was the first to climb Mount Everest, used Mount Cook for his mountain climbing training.
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