August 19, 2005
Leaving our nice lodge in Queenstown was a bit difficult, but we managed. After a full breakfast, which included eggs, roasted tomatoes, fresh kiwis and my beloved muesli & yogurt, we were back on the road, heading towards Mt. Cook, the highest peak in all of Australasia. Our first view of the 3755 meter peak came as we rounded Lake Pukaki, a blue-green lake that was carved out by advancing glaciers thousands of years ago. The mountain ranges surrounding Mt. Cook, know as the Southern Alps, have several glaciers imbedded into them, and most of the peaks also reach over 3000 meters high. Mt. Cook, however, sits as a focal point in the middle of the range. The local Maori call it "Aoraki," which translates to "Cloud Piercer." Many of the Maori legends of creation focus on Aoraki, the closest point to the heavens.
At the Lake Pukaki information center, we stopped off to take in the views of Aoraki reflected in the lake. Interestingly, we bumped into Danny and Angela, a couple from Manchester, England, whom we'd met the day before on our plane trip through Milford Sound, and then earlier on in the morning when we stopped off for gas in a small town just outside of Queenstown! After so many chance encounters, we just had to take a picture with them. They're travelling through New Zealand in a camper van, which comes complete with a big bed, shower, stove and restroom. This might not be the last that we see of them, since we're all going to be ending up in Christchurch by Saturday.
We arrived in Mt. Cook village just after lunchtime, ate a quick meal of chicken pie and cheesy tomato panini, and headed for a trail to a lookout point. We were blessed with great weather once again- you'd think it would be freezing in glacier country, but it actually wasn't too bad.
The hike was pretty easy, and only about 7 km rountrip, but it was beautiful and rugged and brought us to a cool, windy lookout point where we were able to view Mt. Cook surrounded by the Mueller glacier to the left and the Tasman glacier to the right.
In some of the peaks, we could actually see chunks of bluish ice imbedded into the sides of the rocky surface.
The sun sets early when you're surrounded by giants, so we headed back to our cozy hostel to rest up a little bit before dinner. We were both really tired, partly from hiking out in the wind, but also partly because this was probably the most exercise we've had in a week!
Mt. Cook village isn't really what you'd call a "village"... basically there's a huge hotel called the Hermitage which has been
Before we knew it, it was time to head out. We were astounded by how light it was outside at 10pm- the snow on the mountains looked like it was glowing in the dark! We looked up to see a full moon illuminating the valley. I'm getting sad. It's almost time to go home!
here for ages, a tourist center, and a little bar/cafe. The hotel is pretty much your tie to civilization, but it was too fancy for us, so we opted for the Old Mountaineer's Cafe. We found a warm spot on the couch by the fire, and found ourselves sitting across from a really cool Australian couple from Sydney, both of them still wearing their ski gear. So naturally we started talking to them about skiing, and ended up in a three hour conversation over dinner about our lives, politics, social issues and the importance of travelling to foreign places and meeting people with different perspectives on life. Violetta was actually born in Chile and currently works for a public hospital in the IT department. Zane, a native Australian, is a satellite controller, but has been in New Zealand for the past month climbing mountains. He said that his favorite place to ski is this place near Christchurch, where you have to hike up a few hours to ski down a 7 km slope! That's pretty hard core. 
