Chatham Islands and New Zealand 2012: Aoraki/Mount Cook and Surrounding Area

We arrived at Mt. Cook village around 12:45, after the hour and a half drive from Lake Takepo. Check-in to our accommodation wasn’t available til 3pm, so we went straight to Hooker Valley for a walk. The walk was a 3 hour return walk, taking you fairly near Mt. Cook. We found a big boulder, casting a big enough shadow for us to have lunch in the shade. We continued on the mixed terrain, until we finally reached the iceberg lake. The weather was sunny again, with temperatures around the early 20’s (degrees Celsius). This meant it was perhaps a bit too hot for hiking, but at least gave me a better chance of getting a slight tan! The view of Mt. Cook at the end of the walk was fantastic, with many man-made rock piles, standing over 6ft tall.

In the evening I edited some of the day’s pictures, with help from Dad, to pick out favourites or photos to delete. We took a look at some menus (and prices) and plumped for the well recommended, Old Mountaineers Café. The food was lovely, with great portion sizes and friendly staff. Washed down with a few well deserved beers, it was a good end to the day. On return to the lodge, I took a few night time shots with my camera. Another guest at the lodge then showed us an outstanding night time picture of the church at Lake Takepo, which took him 30 minutes to take.

Sunday 8^th April 2012

We woke up at 6:15 this morning and it looking as if it were getting light already, we rushed in the car to the Tasman Lake. We parked up and walked briskly up to the glacial look-out, arriving in 15 minutes completely breathless. When we reached the summit, the views were more than worth it. The sun was casting amazingly pink/purple light on the Tasman Valley, all the way to Lake Pukaki, as well as Mt. Cook itself. At the summit it was extremely windy/cold, but a bonus was having the 4 friendly Kea posing for photos! They are the only alpine bird of NZ and only found in the mountains of South Island.

On arrival back at the lodge, we had breakfast and chilled out for a bit. We had until 11am to kill until our 55 minute scenic snow flight, so I started to edit my many pictures. Shortly afterwards we were informed the flight may not go, due to extreme wind further up the mountain. We were given the option to do the same flight via helicopter at 9:30am, as long as the other couple didn’t show up. This was at 9:00, so we didn’t have long to finish getting ready and get to the airport. We made it in time and the other couple didn’t turn up, so we could either go or try and wait to fly later in the day. The helicopter was the aircraft of choice due to it being able to cope better with strong winds. We chose not to risk it later and I was certainly keen to go in a helicopter (for the 1^st time). There were 6 of us in total, plus the pilot, which meant it was pretty cramped inside.

After all the warnings etc about the wind conditions, when we got up in the air the weather was better than expected. After a rise through the Tasman Valley and an orbit to view Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, we landed at the top of the Tasman Glacier. We landed for just over 10 minutes, which was plenty of time to snap away on the camera! Another 500ft above was a small mountaineer’s hut, which is used before ascending Mt. Cook. Once back in the air, we flew over Fox and Franz-Josef Glaciers (the next two biggest glaciers in NZ). This gave impressive views of the entire West Coast of South Island, right out to the ocean, as well as a different perspective of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook at summit level! The flight was spectacular and well worth the money, definitely the highlight of the trip.

Once we finally arrived back at the Lodge, we had no other plans for the day, except to rest. This gave me time to edit and upload the many pictures I’ve taken, as well as get up-to-date with writing blog posts! Later in the afternoon, we took a stroll up to the Hermitage (which owns almost everything in the Mt. Cook area! Rooms at the Hotel will set you back £300/night, but do have the best view of the entire village. We had a quick look around and the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center was extremely interesting. It had many old photos and memorabilia, as well as a statue of the man himself!

For tea this evening, we went to the Chamois Bar and Grill. Two meals with two 745ml bottles of Tui came to around £30 and we enjoyed our food/beer, whilst watching rugby union highlights.