New Zealand Trip: Day 2 – Thurs 4th Feb
What a fun filled, stunning beautiful scenic view filled, action packed day. We loaded up the car and loaded up at the breakfast table. at $31 each we made sure we got our moneys worth!
We left Christchurch at 9.30pm and headed out of town on highway 1. The maximum speed limit is 100kph, so a bit more relaxed to what I’m used to in the UK. Even though the road was the main route to our destination it was only a single carriage with occasional short stretches of 2 lanes to permit over taking slow vehicles. We stopped for drinks in Ashburton at a local coffee shop off the main highway. Back on route we turned left on to the route 79 heading toward Geraldine. At last our Tourist Radio, which had up until now just been playing popular songs came to life and began to tell us a bit of local history about this quiet backwater town. By the time we were heading out of Geraldine we heard about several wonderful must see sights, maybe next time!
Up until now the landscape had been fairly flat farmland but now we were greeted with some large rolling green hills, and occasionally we caught glimpses of craggy mountain tops poking through the clouds.
We came to the last big town, Fairlie, before our final destination, Mount Cook.
As mount Cook is quite isolated all the guide books suggest to stock up on food to avoid paying top dollar when you get there. We bought fruit, crisps and bottled water. we also stopped for lunch at a local cafe. Very friendly staff and tasty food.
They even let us use their phone to ring our hotel in Queenstown. free internet was also a winner and convinced us to part with some more cash for an ice cold diet coke, so we could stay a little longer. Over lunch Mary prayed for the clouds to clear up and as we headed out of town they did. We were greeted by a spectacular vista of rolling hills and mountains. I was itching to stop the car and take some photos but we were already behind schedule so Mary convinced me to drive on.
In the cafe the lady who served us siad we had to stop at Lake ____ and for good reason. the lake was a bright blue and we surrounded by mountains. The next lake, Lake Pokaki we stopped at was even more spectacular and now we could see some snow topped peaks. Could this be Mount Cook?
The Mauri name for Mount Cook means ‘cloud piercer’ the peak is hidden by clouds 1 day out of 3.
We turned right off the main road, a sign told us that Mount Cook was 55km. The road hugged the side of the lake with the mountains on the other side. Immediately ahead of us we could see Mount Cook, it dominated the sky line and imposed itself on the rest of the landscape. If this was what it looked like from 55km away what was it like up close. Again we had to stop ourselves from stopping every 5 mins to take photos of more beautiful scenery.
Thankfully the roads in New Zealand are quiet otherwise I’m convinced they’d be far more accidents as tourists are busy gawking at scenery instead of watching the road.
45mins later, a couple of photo stops and several one lane bridges later we arrived at the Hermitage. We quickly checked in and dropped our bags in the room and were down stairs at the events booking desk getting the low down on what to do. It was 6pm so we could do a quick walk before bed, either 1 1/2 hours or 3 hours round trip. We’d picked up a brochure in CHristchurch about the glacier boat trip and we were sold. We booked on the boat for 10am the next morning so now all we needed to decide was how adventurous we were feeling. A 3 hour walk and back before it got dark, ‘No Problem!’. A quick 5 min drive up to the car park and map to give us an idea of where to go.
The 3 hour walk took us up to Hooker Lake & glacier and an up close and personal view of Mount Cook – Still cloud covered peak. (There was only us there, probably because no one else was as stupid to go this late at night without flash lights.) The lake was a greyish milky colour and freezing cold with a bit of ice berg floating in it. The walk took a little longer than we had hoped and by the time we reached the lake only Mount Cook was left in the sunlight.
Ah, the race was on to get back to the car before dark, and oddly enough before we left 2 German girls visited the lake after us. Could we beat them back?
As we were about half way we heard a thunder clap & fearing an approaching storm we quickened our pace. We later found out it was probably ice falling from the glacier.
We made it, but only just. By the time we were back at the hermitage it was pitch black. We ventured out for an evening drink but the walk had been too much and exhausted we dragged ourselves to bed.
About Robert Lavender
