Lake Tekapo / Mt Cook Weekend

After a few days of classes and a visitor switch (Hannah left for Akaroa and Sarah arrived from Auckland) my first official weekend from school had arrived! What to do? NOT stay in Christchurch... time to be a tourist again!! Hannah returned from Akaroa Thursday night, and the 3 of us headed to Lake Tekapo early Friday morning to see some sights. We arrived early afternoon, checked into our hostel and headed out for a hike. We did the popular hike of Mt John right close to the town end of Lake Tekapo, where the Mt John Observatory is located - we lucked out with a beautiful cloudless day, so the view of the turquoise glacial lake and the surrounding mountains was awesome! We did not escape the wind though, it was GALE FORCE at the top of the mountain. Only about a 2 hour hike led us to the top, so by evening we were headed back down into the town, PERFECT timing to check out the hot springs! We checked out the Alpine Springs (don't know if they are actually natural.. I just assumed so) at the base of Mt John and enjoyed some serious time in the 3 hot pools (gotta stay a while if it is $18 entry) before heading back to our tiny, packed hostel kitchen to have the most random dinner... couscous, eggs, veggies, hummus and crackers were involved. Delicious all the same! After sorting out some bus issues, we secured some spots on the shuttle to Mt Cook Village the next morning; we were headed for a day trip!! Deciding against actually staying there because it is SLIGHTLY expensive, we booked a bus from Lake Tekapo to Mt Cook for the day then to Twizel for the night. Which I obviously mispronounced when I called a hostel to book some room.. some of these names are TOUGH. So many vowels. After dinner we watched some quality TV in the hostel common room before tucking in. Early the next morning, we were picked up for our hour-long trip to Mt Cook Village. Our bus driver was super nice, let us leave our big bags in the trailer for the day, and had some commentary going on during the drive! We even had two photo stops on the side of Lake Pukaki to take photos of the mountains. Awesome. Once we arrived in Mt Cook village, we had about 6 hours before our shuttle came to pick us up again, so we decided on a popular hike that fit our time frame - the Hooker Valley trail. It started RIGHT by the Hermitage Hotel, which is also the site of the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre. We had a solid 2 hour walk taking us through fields, past giant boulders, across rivers on rope bridges, along moraines, past a couple lakes, and finally along the glacial meltwater stream, leading us to the terminus of the Hooker Glacier at Hooker Lake! Holy long-winded sentence. Sorry. I'll post photos so you don't have to imagine that. Stopping at the lake, we had our snacks and hung out, taking photos and enjoying the sunshine. We got a break from the rain that had been hanging around all week. Lucky us! Our return walk was along the same path so it took us a little less time, and we arrived in time to grab a snack before our bus picked us up. Hopping onto the shuttle for Twizel, all of us pretty much fell asleep. Must have been a great sight for everyone else on the bus hahah :) Only a short way from Mt Cook was Twizel - our stop for the night. We arrived at our place, checked in, and laid our bags down. Then we continued our nap. I couldn't fall asleep for some reason, so I left the other two to sleep away and went to explore the 'town'. I essentially checked out the marketplace across the street from us, found the bus stop for the next day, and hung out in the park. Still so sunny out, I enjoyed the fresh air and the long day since its still summer here! Days WILL be getting shorter though... After a couple hours, the girls joined me and we picked up some necessary items for dinner, including popcorn. Back at our hostel, which was basically a mobile home park / barrack type thing, the common room and kitchen were HUGE which was awesome. While dinner was cooking, Hannah found The Fellowship of the Ring, so OBVIOUSLY we had to watch it. We ARE there. Perfect way to end an awesome day in the mountains - Lord of the Rings and popcorn. We slept like babies, had some breakfast and took advantage of some free wifi at the bakery this morning before we parted ways - I hopped on the bus back to Christhchurch, while the girls headed South to Queenstown! Got a week of classes ahead of me, while they've got some serious activities, so check out their blogs this week: Sarah and Hannah. Plan for next weekend? Reunite in Dunedin!!

MT Cook

Ice from Hooker Glacier