Day 7 Mount Cook:

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I left in the morning for Mount Cook. It was only an hour and a half away. The drive in was very scenic, especially the last 15 minutes. Mount Cook has a small town called Aoraki, which is where I am staying. I am staying at a YHA hostel again like in Lake Tekapo, but this one is 10 times better. The rooms are bigger and it just looks much cleaner and well organized. The bathrooms are also a lot nicer. When I arrived I went to the i site to get information on what there is to do. I was told to hike Hooker Valley, it is supposed to take 3 hours. The clouds over the mountain kind of scared me but the lady at the i site said I could probably make it without getting wet.

I bought some gloves and a hat and headed down the Hooker's Valley trail. After about 15 minutes I was sweating and had to remove my gloves hat and coat. I hiked out for about 45 minutes and came upon a monument called the Alpine Memorial. It was a memorial for all the people who have died in the park. Covering the back of it was about 15 plates of people who had died. As I was standing there a large gust of wind hit me and I was misted with rain. The clouds looked darker and I decided it was best if I went back. Hooker's Valley is a very easy track, it is a gravel trail all the way and most of it is flat. I had enough clothes to keep warm, it was my camera I was worried about. If it rained hard enough I could have been screwed. I headed back toward Aoraki.

I went to the local cafe and got a steak pie and ate it overlooking the mountains. After my lunch I took a drive on along a scenic route. I came upon a small hut that was a shelter for hikers and it had bathrooms. There were 15-30 minute trails you could walk. The sky was still looking bad and it was sprinkling so I guess I will have to go back tomorrow or Friday. It is supposed to rain tomorrow which could really make my day boring. If it does rain I will probably stay until Friday. I want to do a couple of the walks that I was told were nice. I am kind of pissed I didn't do the trails now. It still hasn't rained but it looks bad out. I think I could have done them in time. I also plan on going horse back riding here since it is so nice. It's now only 2:30pm and I don't know what I can do for the rest of the day.

I sat around for a bit then decided it was best if I got up and did the walks I wanted to. It had only sprinkled out and I had doubts it would full out rain. I went and hiked to a couple of small lakes in the mountain and to Tasman Glacial lake. The glacier itself was hard to see but in the lake were pieces of the glacier floating. The destination of the hike wasn't too exciting but the journey was more enjoyable. It had sprinkled slightly but nothing unbearable.

I got back to the hostel and sat in the living room area with the television. My stomach kept rumbling and I think the girl next to me thought it was something else because she was giving me strange looks. We were watching some Hugh Grant movie and it was pretty bad. I started closing my eyes. Then apparently during the most romantic part of the movie I snored really loud and heard myself, I woke up and everyone was cracking up. Pretty embarrassing yet quite hilarious. I finished the movie and went to bed.

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