Tagging along with the tour bus as far as Mount Cook today I immediately knew it was not a regular backpacker bus when the pick-up point was outside a hotel.
Listening to the tired commentary as we passed through the Canterbury region's lowland plains the kiwi's enthusiasm for taking a dig at Australia or New Zealand's island to the left was certainly not hidden. Other than the comfy seats the hitching a lift on a tour bus meant stopping at a few choice places for some pics, as well as the obligatory gift shop, with one stop being by the shores of Lake Tekapo framed by snow capped mountains of the Southern Alps. Also here besides a statue to a sheep dog is a quaint little church with surely one of the best views from a church ever over the lake making it a popular place for weddings with one in progress while we were there.
Just a little further down the road we rounded Lake Pukaki, another spot giving the camera a work out with Mount Cook now in view at the end of the lake with a stunning turquoise colour to it due to the glacier water feeding it. Jumping off at the YHA in the little Mt Cook alpine village it's 5 star rating seemed deserved with clean, comfy rooms blah blah blah but being the only hostel I've ever stayed in with its own sauna. The Mt Cook national park area has a number of walks of varying length as I started on the Kea Point walk, a one hour wander over to a view point of Mueller Glacier with Mt Cook towering above. Aoraki being it's Maori name means Cloud Piercer which seemed a fitting name today with the clouds wisping around it's 3,764 meter high summit.
Back down the track and a detour off to the right took me down another walk into the Hooker Valley but finding nothing more than a few swing bridges and more great snow capped mountain views. Failing to estimate the far southern hemisphere sun's strength I returned sun burnt and peeling thinking best to skip the sauna in case I emerged like a lobster with leprosy. More thumbnails ...
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