Peak Experience

We were delighted this morning (Wednesday May 10) to awaken to mostly clear skies and a brilliant sunrise on the mountains behind the motel, because today was the only day we had left to tour Mount Cook.


On the way out from our quite isolated hotel, we had to ford a stream--never thought we'd be off-roading in the Sunny!



As we drove out to the main road, we were distracted by the dazzling fall colours reflected in the lake.



But then we were a bit dismayed to find low cloud again, on the other side of the mountains!


Nevertheless, we kept going, hoping for the best. At Peter's Lookout (hey, when were you here, Peter?!), the clouds were still pretty heavy, but the famous milky blue tint of Lake Pukaki was in evidence. In these lakes, the rocks are pulverized so finely by cascading down the mountains that they remain in suspension in the water, which scatters the light rays in a way that makes the water look this intense but opaque turquoise blue.



We also were slowed by another flock of sheep on the road. I'm not sure if you can see the dog just to the right of the shepherd, but she looked amazingly like our Molly--could have been her twin! No wonder Molly likes 'herding' rabbits!


When we arrived at The Hermitage, a luxury hotel situated at the foot of famous Mount Cook/Aoraki, dark cloud still covered the mountain, so we amused ourselves for a while by touring inside the hotel.

There was a 1902 De Dion in the lobby, in working order and still licensed for road use And I just have to show you the very cool 'sinks' in the washrooms! The water spilled over the back of the granite shelf and collected in a hidden trough underneath--it was all motion activated, and the most unusual sink design I have ever seen! It's also the first (and likely the last) photo I've ever taken in a public washroom!


Finally the clouds parted and gave us a peek at the famous peak, but then it played hide & seek for quite awhile.



We ran into Vernon, our guide from yesterday's tour, and he recommended that we go have a look at the nearby Tasman Valley, which he said was clear, and then come back to try again to see Mount Cook clearly. We took his advice and had a fabulous climb up to a spot that overlooked the terminus of the Tasman Glacier--not very pretty, but what I imagine the moon might be like!

Up there we met a charming French-Canadian couple from Montreal; Yves is also a fashion photographer (like Geno)! We exchanged email addresses and hope to connect again sometime in future.

By the time we came down, the clouds were again looking a bit ominous, and we decided to go check out the nearby Mount Cook Ski Planes airfield. Taking a flight over a glacier was one of the last things on my NZ to-do list, and with the weather threatening to change for the worse over the next few days, we figured this might be our last chance. Sure enough, we caught the very last flight of the day (on a Cessna 185 SkyWagon), but it proved to be quite an adventure!

First we made it to the head of the glacier only to have the radio cut out and the pilot immediately return to the airfield, where we switched to another plane. Up again, and back to the glacier, where we had the fun of doing a drop of canisters to some people who were at a remote camp and had run out of fuel--see 'the drop' happening below.



In the end, I think we got nearly an hour's flight time for the cost of a twenty-five minute tour. I took more than 150 photos, so it was hard to choose which ones to share, but here are some of the best.



This one shows the beautiful braided rivers at the end of the glacier, running into Lake Pukaki.



This one shows an avalanche that happened just this morning, according to Morris, our pilot.


This one is a close-up of the snow shapes piled up in the heart of the glacier.


And this one is my own personal 'lighting of the beacons' shot--maybe one of my clever kids can add a Photoshop beacon fire for me later!

It was a thrilling experience, and one we would highly recommend to others.



On the way back to Twizel, we stopped for a last look at Mt. Cook, again wreathed in clouds, were dazzled by the intensity of the fall colours in the sunshine once more, and also stopped to look at one of the dam sites that is part of this huge hydroelectric scheme.




Arriving back 'home' at the Weatherall, we had one last grace note--a nearly full moon rising over the twilit mountains. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect final day--over the Haast Pass to Westland tomorrow.