Nothing cooking!

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The drive to Mount Cook is impressive in itself before you even get to the mountains. You pass through beautiful lake districts like Lake Tekapo & can see the snowcapped mountains looming in the distance for most of the journey.

We were fortunate enough to have fine weather when we were going so the water in the lakes looked a pretty turquoise colour....as a result of the rock that's in them. They are surreal looking. Huge lakes.

We stayed in the hostel in Mount Cook but it was late by the time we arrived & Grace had a sore foot so that ruled out walking. We had planned on a major assault on the mountain paths but the next day the mountains were shrouded in thick dark clouds so we left the mountaineering to the seriosly demented. We watched a DVD & then had to head on our merry way again. It was nice to visit anyway so the trip wasn't a waste of time!

We've turned into "fair-weather gals" & decided to skip our stop at Tekapo because of the rain & head towards the coast. So it was a random stop in a city south of Christchurch called Timuru. We bedded down there for 2 nights.....not doing anything major.....the gym, wandering the streets & eating. Tough life I know. It was really a "filler" because we were waiting to go back to Christchurch to collect Grace's boyfriend who was flying in to visit her for 3 weeks.

Anyway the "beloved" arrived & I became the Lone Ranger. I visited the beach near Christchurch....Sumner Beach & walked out to Taylors Mistake & had a lazy day reading in the botannical gardens. So after another 2 days there we started touring again. We're actually like locals in Christchurch now, we've been there so many times. Can recommend the best ice-cream place in town if you're interested. It's a nice city......quite colonial. We've one more trip back there to make the drop-off but after that I think that'll be enough Christchurch for a while.

Here we go again.

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Photos

Mt. Cook
Hiding in the clouds.....snow-capped

Mt. Cook
Mountains all around

Mt. Cook......
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Cook
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Cook....
Snap happy