Tekapo and Mount Cook

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Another four hour bus ride brings me to Lake Tekapo. After checking in to the hostel, I head out for a hike up Mount John to the observatory. Up. And up. It was a steep climb (had to be more than a 10% grade for good stretches), but I finally reached the top. Great views of the surroundings and there were two small scopes that they brought out to view the sun and Mount Cook. I had planned on coming back later that night for a night sky tour, but unfortunately the sky clouded over so it was cancelled. Oh well...these things happen.

The next day I'm on a bus to Mount Cook. The plan is to do a short four-hour hike along the Hooker Valley trail for some close up views of Mount Cook (Aoraki - the Maori name for it, meaning "cloud piercer"). It's New Zealand's tallest mountain. On the way there, the driver tells us that the forecast is for increasing clouds which could mean rain by later in the day. Great. I was in a rush when I left and I'm wearing a thin t-shirt and shorts. No rain gear. Here we go!

After the Routeburn and Milford tracks, this trail is pretty easy. No real climbs and it's mostly well maintained. There are, however, two large swingbridges. Sigh. Fortunately, they are really sturdy. Unfortunately, there are some pretty strong wind gusts. Thankfully, my crossings were uneventful. Now for the feature attraction. Mount Cook. The word is "Wow!" or maybe "Incredible". A snow-covered peak with clouds moving across the upper reaches, hiding then revealing the peak. As I progressed down the valley the winds picked up with some pretty impressive gusts. Twice it blew the guy in front of me off of the trail (he was smaller and had a large backpack). A jacket would have been a good thing. Oh well. Eventually I reached the end of the trail at a small glacial lake (a few small icebergs floated in the water). Wind whipped the water, forming whitecaps. As I was leaving, I stepped up onto a larger rock just as a blast of wind hit. It was so strong that I basically just leaned into the wind and waited for it to die down (which took longer than I expected) before heading back to Mount Cook and a tour of the small Sir Edmund Hillary museum. Then it's back to Tekapo.

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