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Published: December 18th 2013
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Friday 13th December, 2013. Mount Cook National Park - Day 2 & Lake Tekapo, McKenzie County, South Island, NZ
D woke up quite early and, after opening the curtains, declared that the weather seemed to be a bit better today. He took a photo of Mt Cook from the window. After breakfast we loaded up the car and then drove to the Mount Cook campsite car park where there were a couple of walks that we wanted to do.
The first one was called the Kea Point Walk. Like the Tasman Glacier View walk it was described as easy. This time, it was a little more accurate. This walk was well trodden, and only slightly undulating. It concentrated on the flora and fauna of the area and took you to a lookout point that looked over the Mueller Periglacial Lake. During the hour long walk we learned that Mt Cook is sacred to the Ngai Tahu Maori tribe. They have a legend that the mountain and is companion peaks were formed when a boy named Aoraki (the Maori name for Mt Cook) and his 3 brothers came down from the heavens to visit the Earth Mother in a canoe.
The canoe overturned, and as the brothers moved to the back of the boat they turned to stone. The area (270 sq miles or 700 sq km) was declared a National Park in 1953 and has 19 peaks over 3,000 metres (9,842 feet). Glaciers cover 40% of the park.
When we arrived at the lookout point we couldn't actually see head of the Mueller Glacier, we could though, see the lake and the Hooker River outlet emptying into it. We could also clearly see Mount Sefton. This mountain was first climbed on Valentines Day in 1895. Mountaineers Edward Fitzgerald and Matthias Zurbriggen became the first mountaineers to reach the summit. They struggled up the ice cliffs and crumbling rock that we could see above us at the lookout, they were almost lost in a crevasse when an ice bridge collapsed. When they reached the top they realised that the other side of the mountain was much easier to climb (why didn't they check first one wonders?!). Nowadays most climbers approach it from this easier, western side. We walked on past the Kea Point lookout in the hope that we would be able to see the head of the Mueller
Glacier - we couldn't so returned to the car park so we could embark on the next walk.
The next walk was the famous Hooker Valley Trail. It follows the Hooker River and was also described as "easy" in the $1 guide we purchased yesterday. It was OK but the heavy rain overnight had left big puddles and it was slippery in places. We continued on fairly uneven ground (mostly made up of glacial scree) and descended to a swing bridge (the first of 3). M closed her eyes and felt her way across (not good with heights). We continued walking, taking in the breathtaking scenery. After about and hour M had had enough (and it was cold and looked like rain again) so she turned round and went back to the car. D continued on to the next swing bridge (which was only 50 metres on from where M turned round). He took some good photos of the glacier and then also turned around and set off back to the car.
Now we had completed all the walks that we had planned we set off for Lake Tekapo. We stopped again at Peter's Lookout and took some
more pictures - it is so stunning you just can't help it. Goodness knows how many photos we will have of Mt Cook when we get back! We also took hundreds more of Lake Pukaki. We arrived at our accommodation which was lovely - a separate cabin with en-suite, TV and sofa. We unloaded the car and then drove down a dirt track until we reached Lake Alexandrina where there is another Hydro Electric Power Station. We then returned to the main road and headed for the Observatory. It had become increasingly windy and was quite cold despite the sun still shining.
The Observatory is owned and run by the University of Canterbury. it is located on Mount John to the west of Lake Tekapo Township. It is located here because of the purity of the atmosphere above the lake. The views of the lake and the mountains were fantastic - even if you did feel like you were going to be blown off the top and into the lake. On the way back to the hostel we stopped of at Tekapo Springs - a sort of water park but not as good. We then went into the township
and had a Speights. Then we returned to our luxury pad and had a good meal followed by some TV before we retired for the night.
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