Back to the mountains - Mt Cook

As we turned off the main inland scenic highway onto the road to mount cook village we could see up the glacial river valley and it was nothing but flat. The valley floor that is. On either side though the mountains meet the floor at a near perfect 45deg angle. No foothills, no messin' around just steep skiable hills. Driving up the valley the glacial lake turns into a wide meandering riverbed that looks like it contains much more water during the spring floods and then at the end of the valley we could see tall jagged glacial covered mountains. These were the peaks surrounding Mt Cook and itself coyly hiding behind it's lesser siblings. Again they were meeting the valley floor at very sharp angles which makes climbing access to them very easy. No long slogs with heavy packs to the base of the climb, just out the door up the glacier and climb. Looks like a great place to train for the himalayas or Everest even. In fact 55+ years ago one 40 year old chap from Aukland did that exact thing right here. He was Edmund Hillary, refered to affectionately as Sir Ed here, and his climbing partner was Tenzig Norgay a sherpa from the khumbu region of Nepal. This is signifigant because as we were visiting here New Zealand's most notable son passed away at the ripe old age of 98. The newspapers and radios were full of stories about his great feats at home in the Himalaya and to both poles. The stories also told of his generosity to the people of the Everest Valley with the work he did building schools and hospitals in the area that gave him his fame. I'll stop with that for now but it just made visiting this backyard of his a bit more special.

After our arrival we sussed out the campground had lunch under the intense summer sun and then went for a walk. We walked to one of the glaciers, though not onto it, and took lots of pictures. As the sun went down and we drove back to our campground we stopped in a lodge bar and again enjoyed the view and took pictures. Another night of cooking ourselves, a very nice change, and we sat happily in the camper playing cards and drinking nice, but reasonable, NZ Pinot Noir.

The next morning we woke again to the intense sun, I can't emphasize enough how bright and warm it is when the sun is out even if the air is a bit cold, and set off on a longer walk to another glacier viewpoint. Their we met a nice NZ couple who ran a honey farm in a town we had passed though on our way here. They explained a few things about NZ life to us and had quite a nice little chat. I though was eyeing lots of potential ski lines that, in the winter, would only take 2-3 hours to hike to. Mmm, Skiing. Returning to the van midday we packed up and headed down the valley wanting to stay longer but happy to have been there and knowing that there was lots more ahead to see. Not far down the road we picked up a hitch-hiker that was a nice german kid and gave him a lift to the first town down the valley. We too stopped their for a toilet break and the sun was melting me. Even though the free air tempature was only about 28-30c the rayswould have fried bacon on the sidewalk. Maybe it's our proximity to Antarctica and the ozone hole but like I said the sun is INTENSE. Back in the van and fuled up we headed towards the coast and Dunedin though we knew we wouldn't make it that far that evening. After passing by a number of roadside camp options we settled for a grassy layby on a gravel road between sheep fields. I know I'm from Enumclaw but hold the sheep love jokes eh. Sarah cooked up some nice Lamb kebabs and a salad. I know it was a bit sick to be looking at what your eating but they were soo good. Plus the sheep in the feilds were for shearing not lambchops. More cards and wine and we were fast asleep.