Saturday, May 26

May 26, 2007

We woke up this morning as the phone alarm sounded at 8am. I went over and opened the curtains to realize that we can – for the first time here – see Mt. Cook. AMAZING! It’s huge and covered in snow and situated perfectly out of our deck area. Josh comes over and takes a look… then we opt for a few more minutes to sleep. Around 8:45, we wander into the kitchen – we’re the last to arrive.

The other couple was already sitting down with their breakfast, as the owners were standing in the kitchen ready to take our order. I had scrambled eggs, a hash brown, three pieces of toast, and two pieces of ham. Josh had the same thing except he took his eggs in an omelet with mushrooms, tomato, and cheese. We had tea and orange juice to drink. The breakfast was so good!

The girl of the tourist couple is originally from Ecuador and the guy is originally from France. They are living on the French island of New Caldonia which is a two hour flight from New Zealand.

Because we had to get up so early to make breakfast in time, we were out the door and on our way to Mount Cook by 10:30. The drive to Mount Cook wasn’t that long…maybe 45 minutes or so…the mountain views were spectacular. The mountains were everywhere around us.

After stopping at Peter’s Lookout and some other pull offs along the way to take pictures and shoot video, we entered the national park and followed the signs to the visitor center (only getting turned around once). Before driving out here, I thought that our best walking option would be the Hooker Valley trail which was a 4 hour return walk.

Josh and I looked around the visitor center for a little while and Mount Cook was clearly visible through the windows. We read about the different walking tracks and confirmed that the Hooker Valley would be best. I found the most interesting thing in the center to be the two log books documenting the lives and deaths of those who have perished in the park. It was historical and current. The last person to die in the park occurred in January. Many people perished while climbing and crossing the mountain. The grim thing about the book was that there were empty plastic sleeves at the end of the book for the park’s next victims.

After leaving the Visitor Center, we were ready for our walk. We drove down to the Hooker Valley car park area which was full of cars so Josh and I ended up parking on the side of the road rather than in the parking lot. We hoped we wouldn't get a ticket for doing so.

The first thing we spotted on our walk (about 5 minutes in) was a memorial to all the people who have lost their lives on the mountain. We had to climb up a small hill to reach the memorial. Then Josh, in adventure mode, walked down the hill not on the path we'd come up on but just down it making his own way. I was thinking, "What an idiot" while I stayed up there. Josh started walking down the wrong path a the bottom of the hill (I could tell this because I was still on top of the hill) so I had to direct him how to make his way to the correct path. Geez, stick to the main path is it that hard?

The next stop was an overlook that viewed the mountains and a suspension bridge. It was really windy at that spot but the sun was out so we sat at the only bench there for awhile before continuing our hike. We made it to the suspension bridge which can hold up to 20 people (which seemed like a lot more than the suspension bridge at Fox Glacier that only held 5 people at a time). We kept walking because although the mountain views were spectacular all around us, we could not see Mount Cook from here.

Our walk brought us to a really crazy piece of track that ran alongside the mountain. The mountain was covered in mesh to prevent rock falls from occuring. There was even a Danger sign to tell visitors not to stop on this part of the path because it was so dangerous. I wanted to get through that part as quickly as possible. At the end of that section of the trail there was another suspension bridge.

Josh and I could start to view Mount Cook about 10 minutes after passing the second suspension bridge so we decided to sit on a rock and just enjoy the view from here rather than to continue on the trail. We had a mostly clear view of the mountain for about 15 minutes and then the clouds started to roll in. No reason to go further so we turned around and began our hike out of Hooker Valley.

Once we returned to the car, which didn't have a ticket, we drove back to the Visitor's Center to see if the cafe was opened. It was closed until the end of July so no coffee for me. We headed out of the park when we spotted a sign for Tasman Glacier. Even though we were tired from our first hike, we decided to go check it out. The drive to the car park was really nice and when we reached the parking lot we saw that the walk to the Tasman Glacier viewing area was about a 20 minute walk. I thought, it'd better be worth it.

The walk took us up a steep path and we could view the "blue lake" which was really green as we climbed. Josh was leading us up the hill and when he got to the top he was like, "You're not going to believe this."

The Tasman Glacier was nothing like I'd expected. I was expecting to see something that looked like the Franz or Fox Glaciers. The Tasman Glacier was all broken bits and pieces and the sign said that underneath these broken bits that were floating on a grey lake, there was a large glacier. This was too cool!

Adding to the spectacular surroundings were the snow capped mountain peaks that were clearer and in more sunlight than Mount Cook had been when we'd left. It was so incredible: a magnificint and majestic place. Sitting on the top of the hill with this view, just the two of us, I told Josh that this was my most favorite place in the world. We definately want to bring his parents back to this spot when they visit in August.

Josh and I headed back to the car and left the Mount Cook park. As we were leaving, the sunset was so pink with fluffy clouds and the moon was rising so I took a lot of pictures. We drove into Twizel to get some dinner. We contemplated eating at Shorty’s or another restaurant (there were a few open) but Shorty’s was by far the busiest which we always take as a sign that the place is good to eat at. Because I was hungry, I thought buying groceries to cook at the B&B would be faster than waiting for our food at a restaurant.

After parking the car, Josh and I had to navigate our way past an unleashed BIG dog that was standing by what must have been his owners vehicle. The New Zealand news often reports on how people are mauled by dogs on the loose in this country so I wasn’t feeling very confident. However, we made it past the dog and into the 4 Square grocery store where Josh and I bought soups for dinner and I bought a Magnum chocolate/caramel ice cream bar too.

When we left the shop and walked back to the car the dog was gone. Whew! We drove back to the B&B and made our dinner before watching the American Idol results show in the living room with the log burner going. One of the owners had started the fire for us so Josh didn’t have to make it today. There was a rug placed in front of the burner, however, which we thought was interesting since Josh had made his previous comments on why anyone would place carpet so near to a fire.

The New Caldonian couple left the B&B to eat dinner in town so Josh and I could watch AI as loud as we wanted. When they returned about 2 hours later, the show was still on but wrapping up. They watched the show for a little while, making comparisons to the French version of American Idol and other pop music reality shows they have in France, then they were off to bed because they had to leave at 5 am to drive to Kaikoura by noon in order to make their whale watching tour. That seemed crazy to us!

We got a bonus with AI when we found out that we would not have to wait another week to watch the finale. NZ tv was going to run the finale the following day. Sweet!