Aoraki/Mt. Cook (October 5-8)

The first stop on our southern tour would be Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Aoraki, or "Cloud Piercer," stands tall at 3754 meters, the highest peak in in New Zealand in spite of a rock slide in 1991 which caused it to lose 10 meters in elevation.

Lake Tekapo

Driving through MacKenzie Country, we passed a sheep hauling truck with an area behind the rear wheels where Mike noticed a sheep dog peeking out. After lunch in the cute town of Geraldine, we stopped at pretty Lake Tekapo, our first NZ glacier fed lake. Gotta love that glacier blue color! A bit further on, Lake Pukaki was at least as pretty. We stopped at the Pukaki viewpoint/iSite and inquired about seeing Black stilts, a rare and endangered NZ bird, and were advised to check with someone at the nearby airport. With pretty waters to our right along the long lake, we headed north towards the snowy mountains, stopping at the small airport geared toward tourist flight seeing adventures. One of the clerks there knew about the Kaki – Black Stilts – and told us that DOC had recently released 50 young birds into the area as part of their conservation plan. She also grumbled that DOC blamed the residents' cats for the recent demise of 15 of the birds, a local political issue that we were far less interested in than actually seeing and photographing the birds.

With information on where to see the young stilts in hand we headed a short distance down the road. Mike spotted another birder (carrying a massive 600mm lens and tripod) way off in the distance so we figured we had found the correct spot. The Dunedin birder kindly showed us the way to a Wrybill nest with eggs that he had stumbled upon while looking for stilts. We also spent some high quality time observing and photographing juvenile black stilts at close range.

We got into Mount Cook Village at around 6PM and found a room at the Alpine Lodge, the Lonely Planet Pick. It turned out to be a nice spot, convenient and with a fine view out our window. We were wiped out and after dinner at the cozy Old Mountain Man restaurant, called it a day.

Wednesday morning, Susan was moved by the view of the mountain from our window at sunup. At her urging, nay prodding, we jumped out of bed and drove out to the Tasman Valley at around 7AM... unfortunately in our enthusiasm took precedence over planning, and the hike to Tasman Glacier exceeded what we were prepared to do at that hour. No problem, we headed back to the “village” and grabbed a sustaining breakfast from the marvelous buffet at the historic Hermitage Hotel, where we also had a table with a view of the mountain in the advancing morning light.

After our meal, we tried again to check out the Tasman Glacier area, but the winds had picked up considerably. The first walk took us to Tasman Glacier Lake. Huge icebergs had calved off the glacier face and little boats took visitors out for a closer look, but none were on the lake this blustery morning. Next we headed on to the Tasman Glacier View trail.  Susan held back shortly after Blue Lakes, but Mike continued on in strong and gusting winds to the Tasman Glacier View.

Feeling a little tired, we headed back to the Hermitage to visit the Edmund Hillary Visitor Center, where we rested a bit while watching a couple video presentations and taking in some of the mountaineering artifacts.




Click here for larger images with captions.

Around 5PM we headed out again to see what we could see, this time in the Hooker Glacier Valley area. Two suspension bridges over schist boulders in glacier streams are highlights of this interesting hike. Susan turned back a bit before the second bridge, but Mike forged on, trying to beat the setting sun. Reunited again shortly after the first bridge, we walked back home, but not without another stop and photo op at the Alpine Memorial at sunset.

We went to bed the night before agreeing that we had done Aoraki/Mt Cook “justice”, but alas when the sun came up over a cloudless blue sky, morning-person Susan could not contain herself and headed out along the Kea Point trail. Mike caught up in a bit, the beauty of the morning replacing any regrets he might have had about not getting the early start on the road we had discussed the night before.

After checking out of the Alpine Lodge, Susan really wanted to take advantage of a tip from a Mt Cook Visitor center employee and see the early-blooming Mt Cook Lilies along the Governor's Bush Track. The lilies were exactly where she had described. We could have headed right back to the car, but with birds in the bush -- we saw our first Tomtit -- and pretty views, “just a little further” kicked in again and we ended up doing the entire 1 hour track. Time to go again... okay a quick look behind The Hermitage where we'd heard we might see Kea turned up none of the cheeky characters, but we did spot a falcon circling way up in the thermals. Gosh it was already past noon so we reluctantly said good bye to Aoraki /Mt Cook a final time under perfectly blue skies.

Back along Lake Pukaki, we stopped again to pay a visit to the young black stilts. We'd hoped to also spot an adult but no luck. After another brief stop at the visitor center viewpoint at the southern end of the lake, we headed off towards our destination for the night, Wanaka.

With only a brief stop for lunch at the Wrinkly Ram in Omarama (we'd missed the last sheep shearing demo of the day, but the owner suggested another one in Queenstown – Walters Peak) we landed at the Wanaka iSite just 10 minutes before closing. They helped us find an unexpected deal on accommodations at a fine resort located on edge of the lake, walking distance to town but away from the hustle bustle. We decided stay 4 nights so we could take in the sights AND rest up. We got some groceries and settled in to enjoy a lovely warm Wanaka evening.