Aoraki - Ain't No Mountain High Enough

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Ha ha. Cheesey I know, but Chris had that song in mind for some reason when we were doing this little entry!

So we left Lake Tekapo, and headed South West towards Lake Pukaki. Like Tekapo it shines a beautiful blue colour, especially when the sun shines as much as it did when we were there! After a lovely 45 mins and scenic drive we arrive in Twizel (about 60km south of Mt Cook village) where we were staying for our 2 days in the Mt Cook area. Accomodation in Mt Cook village is very limited, so we stayed in the quiet but charming town of Twizel about 45 mins away.

Our hostel was a really nice and cosy place, where we met some interesting other fellow travellers and spent the evening recounting travels and other stories! Chris barbecued a couple of steaks and we drank our refreshing Speights beer watching the sun go down behind the mountains.

The following day we got up fairly early and drove the short distance up to Mt Cook village. The scenery driving alongside the lake on the way up to the village was simply breathtaking. Once we arrived at the village we stopped by the DOC, where we picked up a couple of guides for the walks in the area and then drove the 5 mins further into the mountains to the start of the Hooker Valley Track.

The Hooker Valley takes you into the mountains up a path gouged out by ancient glaciers, and with the 32 degree sun this made for a super little walk up into the mountains. After crossing 2 swing bridges, undulating hills, and a series of boardwalks, 2 hours later we arrived at the foot of the Hooker Glacier, which forms the Hooker Glacial Lake. We lunched here with a stunning view of Mt Cook and the floating icebergs that had dropped off the glacier.

After a 2 hour return to the car, we headed towards the Tasman Glacier (a slightly shorter and easier walk), which showed some amazing moonlike rock formations were the glacier had once travelled through the valley ending in the current glacial lake, and yet more stunning views of the mountains.

By the time we had arrived back to the car, Chris was feeling the heat on the back of his neck from the days trekking, and we were both exhausted so we headed back to our charming hostel for a well deserved beer. It would later turn out that Chris had pretty badly burnt his neck and arms, but he was far to busy enjoying his beer to be worried about that!

That's pretty much it for shizzle ma nizzle Twizel (what we kept thinking when we heard the name Twizel mentioned!), we next headed back to east coast to Oamaru on our way down to Dunedin. stay tuned...

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Comments

[Nomes]

Twizel and other fun stuff
Loving reading your blog guys! Looks like you're having an amazing time especially judging by the gorgeous pictures, very envious (it's raining in Paris-surprise surprise!) Keep having fun and updating the blog with all your antics. And take care! Lots of love from Nomes x x x