Majestic Mt Cook
(16th - 17th December)
After Wanaka, we ventured to Mt Cook. I came here from Methven last time, which is a different direction. To be honest, I think that direction was the better way to go as it was sooo scenic and lovely. Although when Sarah and I eventually reached Mt Cook, we weren't too sure which peak it was and had to refer to a postcard to be sure.
This time, with that experience under my belt, I was able to see it quite some time before we reached it. There were glaciers and mountains all around, it was still great scenery. When we got closer, we still struggled to see Mt Cook as it's only visible from certain angles, which made me feel much better about our last trip. I thought we'd just been a bit dumb not being able to see a great big mountain! We wandered around the exhibitions there (Edmund Hilary, Everest climber, had an exhibition dedicated to his mountain climbing pursuits). I got the impression that Edmund Hilary was actually a bit of a glory seeker as it seems he wasn't the only one who climbed Everest. Sherpa Tenzing Norgay went with him, carried his stuff but only got secondary mentions in the exhibitions. Having said this, when I was trying to remember Norgay's name, I looked it up, and it appears that actually, Mr Hilary has since done loads for Sherpa's, so perhaps I should ease up on him.
Anyhow! After we headed to Mt Cook, we took a little drive to the local DOC site nearby, which gave us amazing views of the glaciers (actually the largest glacier in NZ, apparently). We decided that we would stay here the night as it was such a nice setting. It also had excellent facilities for a DOC site.
We watched the sun go down and took a little stroll to go see Mt Cook again and watched the sun set in the other direction. We then made an amazing commitment, something I did not expect myself to agree to. There was a lake about an hour or so away, and I thought it might look nice for sunrise as it was in the right direction. As we were walking back from our short stroll, we agreed to set the alarm for stupid o'clock in the morning, at which point we would get up and walk to the river to watch the sun rise.
I set my alarm for about 4.30am and then got an early night. We'd parked so we could see the glacier from the window, and I thought this might motivate me to get up in the morning. Turns out, I needed no motivation. A couple of hours after going to bed it tipped it down with rain and didn't stop. I promptly switched off the alarm and attempted to sleep instead.
So sadly, as we have no proper wet weather gear between us (I have an umbrella, Chris has a leaky coat), we didn't get to go see the lake or the sunrise. Nor did we get to see much on the way back as the rain kind of ruined the views, what with there being so much cloud and all. Oh well, the intention was there!
After Wanaka, we ventured to Mt Cook. I came here from Methven last time, which is a different direction. To be honest, I think that direction was the better way to go as it was sooo scenic and lovely. Although when Sarah and I eventually reached Mt Cook, we weren't too sure which peak it was and had to refer to a postcard to be sure.
This time, with that experience under my belt, I was able to see it quite some time before we reached it. There were glaciers and mountains all around, it was still great scenery. When we got closer, we still struggled to see Mt Cook as it's only visible from certain angles, which made me feel much better about our last trip. I thought we'd just been a bit dumb not being able to see a great big mountain! We wandered around the exhibitions there (Edmund Hilary, Everest climber, had an exhibition dedicated to his mountain climbing pursuits). I got the impression that Edmund Hilary was actually a bit of a glory seeker as it seems he wasn't the only one who climbed Everest. Sherpa Tenzing Norgay went with him, carried his stuff but only got secondary mentions in the exhibitions. Having said this, when I was trying to remember Norgay's name, I looked it up, and it appears that actually, Mr Hilary has since done loads for Sherpa's, so perhaps I should ease up on him.
Anyhow! After we headed to Mt Cook, we took a little drive to the local DOC site nearby, which gave us amazing views of the glaciers (actually the largest glacier in NZ, apparently). We decided that we would stay here the night as it was such a nice setting. It also had excellent facilities for a DOC site.
We watched the sun go down and took a little stroll to go see Mt Cook again and watched the sun set in the other direction. We then made an amazing commitment, something I did not expect myself to agree to. There was a lake about an hour or so away, and I thought it might look nice for sunrise as it was in the right direction. As we were walking back from our short stroll, we agreed to set the alarm for stupid o'clock in the morning, at which point we would get up and walk to the river to watch the sun rise.
I set my alarm for about 4.30am and then got an early night. We'd parked so we could see the glacier from the window, and I thought this might motivate me to get up in the morning. Turns out, I needed no motivation. A couple of hours after going to bed it tipped it down with rain and didn't stop. I promptly switched off the alarm and attempted to sleep instead.
So sadly, as we have no proper wet weather gear between us (I have an umbrella, Chris has a leaky coat), we didn't get to go see the lake or the sunrise. Nor did we get to see much on the way back as the rain kind of ruined the views, what with there being so much cloud and all. Oh well, the intention was there!
posted by wobblepop at 6:16 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home