Mount Cook

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We are breakfasted, packed up and on the road by 8.30am – heading to Mount Cook, the highest peak in the southern hemisphere, and in located in and around several mountain ranges with over 3000 peaks and glaciers. We check into the YHA, change and take our picnic with us as we head off to complete the Hooker Valley trail. It is a nice easy flat trail, crossing several very large and fun suspension bridges, ending at the glacier lakes with actual icebergs floating in it, with Mount Cook in the background! We head past the official end of the track, over the large boulders around the lake to where there are no tourists. I go for a paddle in the lake next to the icebergs – it’s rather chilly on the feet, and surprisingly it’s very murky so you can’t see below which is rather disconcerting. After a few photos and thawing out my feet in the sunshine for a while we hear a funny noise, and the iceberg just totally rotates in the water, with the hidden underside flipping to the top. It’s a very simple and natural yet amazing phenomenon to witness as it was no small iceberg for a lake!

Dick used to spend a lot of time in his youth in this area, skiing, walking and running, and the only hotel in the village – ‘The Hermitage’ was where only the very distinguished guests would visit, where plus 4’s and tweed jackets had to be worn to be allowed in (I have just learnt what plus 4’s are!). As such he wanted to check out what it was like now, so he treated us to a cocktail in the skyline bar there. I have to say it is by far the nicest mojito I have ever tasted, and Ana and Dick both having a strawberry daiquiri, which was also delightful. All of them however were rather heavy on the alcohol content and as such Ana and I come out feeling rather tipsy! After a rather bland and scrambled together dinner at the hostel, and a quiet dinner I settled down and tried to get used to sleeping in an 8 bed dorm room again! Oh the luxury I have been used to with my own room for the last few days!

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