The Mount Cook National Park called us with the promise of wonderful short walks and the highest mountain in New Zealand.
On the drive there from Queenstown, the Southern Alps began to appear as we came over the top of a pass and unlike the west side, where you are right up next to them, from this side the mountain range rears up from a totally flat plain, and stretches as far as the eye can see into the distance in a row of white peaks.
We stayed in the rather eerie town of Twizel which didn't exist before 1968. It was built specifically to house workers who were building a massive hydro-electric dam in this area. After the project was completed, Twizel was meant to be dismantled, but the residents petitioned to be allowed to stay there. It's got a bland, small town American feel to it (full of pre-fab bungalows and a shabby shopping area), and you can definitely pick up vibes that it really isn't meant to be there and is hanging on to existence by the skin of its teeth!
However, we stayed in a lovely motel with A frame chalets that felt very homely. On the first night we shared with 5 other English people who were preparing to climb to top of Mount Cook over 3 days. On our second night we thought we'd got away with having the whole chalet to ourselves, but a local plumber who'd been too late for the motel rooms ended up sharing with us and we all sniggered at an Austin Powers film together. The best bit about the motel though were 2 gorgeous red setters that lived there. Darren gave them lots of fussing and was sad to leave them the next day.
There are lots of lakes and canals in the area and all of them are a striking milky turquoise colour, which is caused by 'glacial flour' - small suspended particles that refract the light. They look pretty stunning in the sunlight as you can see from the pics.
On the first night we drove out to watch the sunset over one of the lakes and the mountains looked very unreal - they were faded grey and dusky blue and totally looked as if they were just painted scenery.
The next morning we set off to spend the day in the National Park. We had perfect sunny weather (our luck seems to have changed) and did 3 of the many short walks in the area. Walking past one of the glacial lakes, we kept hearing low echoy booms and it wasn't until we read the info plaque that we realised these were mini avalanches. Then, as we looked around we could see snow pouring down the mountain-side in many places, looking like waterfalls from afar, but starting and stopping as different sections of snow shifted and melted in the hot sun.
We saw 2 more glaciers. The Tasman glacier which is the longest in NZ and is pretty ugly at its terminal face, unlike the spectacular Franz Josef. It looks more like a large abandoned quarry as the lower part of it is covered in rock and rubble and the ice is melting away from underneath to form a huge terminal lake that is a dirty grey colour and has icebergs floating about in it.
Mount Cook itself is double peaked and towered above the surrounding mountains, and the few wispy clouds that were hanging around. We walked up the Hooker Valley, full of springtime alpine flowers, with fantastic views of the mountain all the way. Its Maori name is Aoraki, meaning cloud piercer. Very appropriate.
The next day we left Twizel via Lake Tekapo, stopping at the Church of the Good Shepherd. This is a tiny quanit church overlooking the lakes and the mountains. It is also our most full-on encounter with other tourists. The church probably only fits 20 visitors at a time and about a coachload a minute was turning up (mostly Japanese). We had a cup of tea from our trusty flask and waited for the rush to die down. But as soon as one bus-load left, two more turned up. In the end after waiting half an hour we sprinted to the church in front of another organised tour, poked our noses in and legged it again! Apparently we have visited just before the 'silly season' as the locals call it, when all the roads that we had virtually to ourselves are nose-to-tail campervans. Phew.
21 votes 
