The Only Way Is Up!!!

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23rd March 2009 - THE RIDE TO MOUNT COOK VILLAGE.....UP, UP AND UP!!!
I woke up early again...think my body clock is set to 7am these days! It was lovely and warm under my covers though and so I stayed there until 8am dozing on and off! I then got up, washed and had breakfast before getting myself ready for the cycle to Mount Cook Village. I was not in a good frame of mind this morning and I did not want to cycle at all. For some reason I felt nervous which is silly but then I am a bit silly sometimes!! I had no choice in the matter anyway and so I packed my panniers up (getting fuller and heavier by the day) and once we were both ready we set off on the road.

I absolutely hated the first half hour to Pukaki Lake Corner. It wasn't difficult but I did not want to be on a bike. As the day went on though I felt better and better even though the ride got tougher. Strange things do happen! From Pukaki Corner we turned off onto the Mount Cook Road. The road, even where it looked flat felt like it was uphill. It wasn't steep in many parts but if felt like a continual gradual incline all the way pretty much. It was cold too as there was lots of cloud cover and the sun couldn't seem to get through at first. After about 2.5 hours the cloud lifted and we got some sunshine...wooo...things were looking up and the views of Lake Pukaki were nice too!!

We stopped in a place called Glentanner for lunch and stayed there for about 40 minutes or so. Nat had not enjoyed the ride at all up to that point and typical as it was, as I was having a good day, she was having a bad one. She pushed on though and did not strop as I have done on previous occasions...maybe it's the 4 month age gap...she is more mature!!

After lunch we got back on the bikes for the last leg of the day. It was pretty much the same uphill ride....long gradual incline that never seemed to end. The views were spectacular though as Mount Cook got closer and closer and I really enjoyed the ride into the valley. Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in NZ and is very impressive as is the cul-de-sac of mountains around it. Awesome to ride towards!

When we arrived we checked into the YHA - always nice, clean and homely though a tad more expensive than we would have liked. We then had a short walk to the DOC office to sort out our plans for the following day and the rest of our time in Mount Cook National Park. Armed with information we proceeded to the Hermitage Hotel as we needed some food for tea and Nat wanted some junk food to make her feel better. We didn't realise when we set out from the hostel but neither of us had changed our clothes. Definitely sunk to a new low strumming around town in cycling shorts with a padded bottom on them.....Oh dear!!

The rest of the day was spent chilling out, on the internet and having tea. We also spent some time sorting out our things for our next adventure. A bit of a nothing evening but nice after a days cycling! We went to bed at around 11ish and hoped the weather would stay nice for our mountain hut climb the following day!!

Cycled: 64km/40 miles

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