Mount Cook Weekend

A few weekends ago, about 20 people from my GlobaLinks group decided to make a trip to Mount Cook for the weekend. Thursday morning we drove up the coast stopping at the Moeraki Boulders which were a sight to see! 

 

There are many theories as to how the boulders came to be but no definitive answer.  

 

There are over 50 boulders on the beach.

We ended at  Lake Tekapo for the night. It is known that the star gazing is phenomenal there so we planned a night hike.

  

This campsite was supplied with a kitchen, which was wonderful. After cooking up dinner we decided to drive out and see what Tekapo has to offer and this is what we came across...

We went back to camp and started our hike a few hours after sunset in hopes of getting the best view. We got to the top an hour later which led us right next to the observatory. Unfortunately, by this time the weather had decided to cloud over so there was no stars out to gaze at. My friend did however find a hedgehog in her bag once we returned to camp which was an event the whole camp ground could hear.

The next day we made our way around Lake Pukaki and stopped to take some pictures of the gorgeous view.

  

 There was a lot of driving during this trip, but with these kinds of views no one even noticed.

 

Once we were all settled at Mount Cook Village (PB and Js for everyone!), we made our way to the trail-head. 

  

This was my first experience actually backpacking into camp carrying everything I needed. 

There was a route that took us all the way up to Mueller Hut on the top.

We actually hiked Mount Olliver which gave us a good view of Mount Cook, NZ's tallest peak at 3,754m which is 12,316 feet. 

 

The above is hooker glacier lake and if you look towards the back of the lake you can see hooker glacier covered in dirt but there none the less. 

  

As we continued to climb the view was more spectacular.We climbed around 2,000 steps before reaching the scree fields. 

I was so thankful to see rock after so many stairs...

We hiked around a total of 1,000m in elevation gain (3280' feet) that day once we reached Mueller Hut at the top. 

Sir Edmund Hilllary actually opened this hut in 2003.

This is the kitchen area of the hut

This is the entry and the door straight back is where a volunteer warden will stay to look after the hut (one week at a time) and call down to the base to ensure everyone made it up safely.

Being broke college students, we always try to make things as cheap as possible. A few of us didn't want to pay the full amount to sleep in the hut, so for a quarter of the amount we could camp outside. We built up this great rock wall to protect us from the wind (over 100km/hr might I add) and set up under the hut because there was a storm rolling in that night. We were just about finished when the warden came outside and asked us to please sleep inside. He said it would be a miserable night and if we slept in the kitchen (without a mattress) we would just pay the tent fee. It didn't take us long to say yes, even though we made this wonderful shelter.

The warden was right. It would have been a miserable night. I stayed up for most of it listening to the winds and the rain beating against the windows. There wasn't much of a sunrise but once the sun poked out there was an amazing rainbow.

 

 

This is our entire group ready to face the cold and wind to head back down the mountain.

 

 Once we made it down the mountain we started our drive to Wanaka. 

It is starting to become normal to drive on the right hand side of the car and the left hand side of the road. It will be strange to adjust back when I return to the States.

 

On our way we stopped at the grocery store with a deli nearby and I treated myself to one of the few kiwi specialty foods--MEAT PIE. I chose steak and cheese as you can see below. It was mighty tasty and slightly similar to a pasty from back home.

We also stopped next to this lake. The color of the water is not Photoshopped, it really looked like blue Gatorade.  

We made it to Wanaka later that day and here you can see the lake.

 

We stayed at a campground next to the river that night. It was a nice relaxing evening and we all sat around and enjoyed each others company while making dinner. We even set up a slack line to play around with.  

The next morning the van took their 11 passengers to Rob Roy Glacier while our car decided to do a shorter day hike and head back to Dunedin earlier. 

  

Even though it was only an hour hike, the view did not disappoint. Overlooking Wanaka you could see all sorts of peaks in the distance. 

 

This handy tool told you exactly what peak you were looking at when you lined up the lines with a specific peak. 

On the way down we also came across this "pine" tree (?) All I know is it produced this massive pine-cone looking object. It was way heavier than I anticipated. NZ never ceases to amaze me.  

 

When the drive gets long remember you can always pull over and find yourself some hidden beauty like we did here. 

 

CHEERS!

CA