Day 3 We woke up after a freezing night and had the car heater on for about 20 mins before we began to thaw out. The windows were frozen from the inside and we decided that we would stay in a campsite tonight so we could make use of the electric heater.
To warm us up we headed for a trek up Mt John, perched at about 1000m, it had incredible views of the southern alps, valley and Lake Tekapo. In fact this spot also houses a observatory mainly because the night sky is so clear and black, with so little pollution,that on a good day over 50million stars are visible. That would explain out feeling that the night sky compared to Nigeria. Phenomenal.
The journey up was a challenge mainly because the path was frozen and so it made for some good entertainment watching me trying to stay on my feet. I am not known for my sense of balance! After a 3 hour round trip and lots of fun (Sophia didn't complain once about the uphill), we headed back to the hot tubs and made use of our 2 day pass. It was bliss once again and the mountain and lake views once again breathtaking. We made some pasta for lunch which was yummy and headed out of Lake Tekapo towards Aoraki Mt Cook Village. This is at the base of the Mt Cook home to the highest peak, you guessed it, Mt Cook at 3700m. The drive was spectacular as we approached. It was getting late in the day so we stopped off early at a campsite called Glentanner Park. This place was perfectly situated, a lake at its base and mountains everywhere. It reminded me of Wasdale in the lake district (nick and spy will remember that).
We chose our camping spot and parked the van for the night. I bought a winter fishing licence and we headed for the lake. After a couple of hours, some wine and cheese and failure to catch any fish, we headed back to our camp spot for the night.
I then went to the BBQ area and cooked some cracked black pepper and merlot wine venison sausages. Delicious!! The day was great again.
Day 4
We headed to the Aoraki village itself and prepared for a 5 hour trek to the base of the Hooker glacier, shaddowed by the great Mt Cook ranges. It was an impressive walk by any standards, and to be honest was on par with many of the views I had seen of Everest in the Nepalese Himalayas. Across suspension bridges, slippery iced rock ledges (secured with cables etc) and much snow, we eventually make it to the base of the Hooker glacier at Hooker Lake. This frozen monster of a lake was surrounded by spectacular mammouth 3000m peaks boasting their white snow covered faces and glistening in the sunlight. One of the best views we'd ever seen. I didn't try fishing on this occasion.
We headed back after taking as much of it in as possible and enjoyed the views that were behinds us on the way up, also amazing. I'm documenting this so there are no dispute about uphills in the future- Sophia didn't complain about the uphills at all - so I've concluded she does like uphills despite her repeated protests.
We had a good carb meal back at the campsite, enjoyed the wood burning fire, and got some well deserved rest. Another great day: thanks NZ.
