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We woke around 7am to clear skies on both sides of Lake Pukaki, but still foreboding dark clouds at the head of the lake, obscuring Mt Cook adn its neighbours. Undeterred we enjoyed a hot shower (onboard) and breakfast before heading up HWY 80 towards Mt Cook Village. Despite the low cloud the scenery was stunning, with the surrounding peaks all dusted with a topping of snow. If anything, the clouds created an atmosphere whereby the surrounding mountains appeared more imposing and dramatic.
Arriving at the Hermatige Hotel, which also houses the Sir Edmund Hillary Apline Centre with its collection of
artefacts from his many adventures and showing various films too. We paid our NZ$20 each entrance fee and went
for a look around, before joining the 10:45amm showing of the Magic of Mt Cook
3D film. This was an
excellent film that started with the Maori legend of the ancient Maori gods that were shipwrecked and then
turned to stone to form Mt Cook and its neighbouring peaks - the Maori god Aoraki was the tallest one so he
formed Mt Cook, which in 1997, as part of the government reparations to the Maoris now bears his name too. The
remainder of the film showed various scenes of the mountain and described Sir Edmund Hillary's first ascent of
the south ridge. After this film, we watched a 75-minute documentary about the great man himself, which was
very interesting and contained a lot of footage from his ascent of Everest in 1953.
When we emerged from the cinema we were shocked to discover the sun had come out and Aoraki / Mt Cook was now in full view, directly opposite the hotel. What a fantastic sight!
We returned to the café where we had a rather poor lunch with a spectacular view of the mountain, before returning to the camper. We then drove up to the start of the Hooker Valley walk, and then up the road heading towards the Tasman Glacier. Here we parked up and I went to walk up the very steep and numerous steps up the hill for a view of the Tasman Lake and the glacier at its head. The walk was tougher than it should have been and served as yet another reminder of just how unfit I've become. Hopefully, I'll find time to do more walking back home, as despite it being tough, I thoroughly enjoyed the climb (after it was over!) and the views were well worth the effort. Returning to the camper we set off again, only to stop once more a little further down the road for some more photos, such is the beauty all around us. Then it was on to the campsite just 20km away by the head of the Lake Pukaki at Glentranner. We checked in and drove round the campsite, settling on a powered site with a view of Aoraki / Mt Cook from our rear window. Tracy then did our laundry again whilst I whistled away some time writing my journal before preparing our penultimate meal in the camper...
This time I managed to reduce the amount of chillies in the Hot Tuna so we ended up with mild hot tuna, which Tracy could eat! We followed up the Hot Tuna with the last of the cheese and crackers and washed the whole lot down with a couple of bottles of Carrick's excellent and drinkable Pinot Gris, whilst watching the sun slowly set on Mt Cook.
2:30am and Tracy's alarm starts going off to wake us up so we can enjoy the dark skies and stargaze. Whilst the sky was impressive, with countless stars and even the Milky Way visible, the campsite hut light detracted somewhat. Nevertheless, it had been worth getting up for, especially as I could return to bed again!
We finally woke up again around 7:30am and toddled off to use the campsite showers, which were warmer and more spacious than the one in the camper. Breakfast was an unhurried affair, making use of the electrical hook-up to cook toast using the wonderful country-style granary bread. Once our bellies were full we did the washing up and other chores and left the campsite taking the Mt Cook Highway back alongside Lake Pukak, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and with an almost constant view of Mt Cook in the mirrors.
We headed back to Twizel where there was a public dump site we could use for our final empty of the toilet and waste water and fill up with fresh water ready for our final night freedom camping. We then turned round and headed north again, skirting the bottom of Lake Pukaki and past the campground we'd stayed at 2 days ago. The contrast between the view now and then was marked, now Mt Cook clearly visible at the head of the lake where previously there was nothing but cloud. Ive seen some fantastic mountain scenery on my travels, including the Himalaya and in Patagonia, but this view was up there with the very best of them. Simply beautiful.
So beautiful, in fact, that we drove for several miles without a word being spoken, lost in our thoughts.
Before long we arrived at Lake Tekapo, which had been highlighted in our research as a place of great beauty. It was, and had we been arriving from the East and not after having been to Mt Cook and Lake Pukaki, I'm sure it would have ranked higher on our list of beautiful places. As it was, the scenery we'd just left behind had it beat and so we didn't stop for long at all, just time for a couple of photos.
From here it was only a short distance over Burke's Pass (which didn't seem like a pass at all, being mostly flat) to Fairlie. Here we sought out a supermarket to buy some steak for our last dinner and some flowers to take to Lois. Lois is the childhood pen-friend of Tracy's mum, and they've been writing to each other since they were 12 (65 years ago!). They both got married within 2 years of each other and both had 2 daughters and a son, all being born at roughly the same time. Lois' eldest, Debra, is Tracy's age and they've been chatting away via FaceBook throughout our journey. It was originally intended that we would meet up with most of the family whilst passing through Fairlie, where Lois has lived all her life. Unfortunately, Debra adn Sally (her other daughter) have both got important engagements today, and Blair (her son) is away, so that plan has fallen through. We still hope to meet Debra on Monday in Christchurch, but we couldn't pass by without meeting Lois herself. With her address programmed into the GPS, we set off from the supermarket car park to go there. Only to have to stop again immediately as some idiot (me!) had left the cupboard door open and all the cooking oil and basil had fallen out on the floor and made a right mess! With that cleaned up, we tried again, travelling the 800m or so to Lois home around the corner. Pulling up outside and destroying half an over-hanging tree with the camper's high roof, we walked tentatively up the path hoping to make a better impression in person. We were met like old friends by a lovely woman, who belied her 77 years with a beaming smile. We sat and chatted about family and our travels, made to feel totally at home and totally welcome. I originally thought it might prove awkward, especially as we've never spoken to her before, and so expected to stay for a maximum of less than an hour. After 2 hours, and with a desire to head off for our last night's camping, we bade farewell, more determined than ever to return to this fantastic country.
One thing we discovered whilst chatting to Lois was that HWY 79 towards Geraldine, our intended route, was closed. She had shown us the front page of the local paper, which caried a large photograph of a broken bridge, the bridge on HWY 79 just outside Geradline that had been destroyed by the heavy rain brought by cyclone Gita a couple of days before. So when we left Lois we headed out of town on the only open road, HWY 8, and selected a campground called O'Neill's Reserve just outside Albury. It took a little finding, not being signposted from the road and the GPS taking us to the opposite river bank, but when we arrived we had the whole place to ourselves. A large grassy area a good distance from the road and only accessible down a narrow gravel road it was lovely and peaceful. Just the sound of the river, the wind in the trees and bathed in lovely warm New Zealand sun. Perfect.
The arrival of 2 more campervans didn't ruin it at all, as there was plenty of space between us. As I write this it's approaching 6pm, we've finished the last of the beer (we only had 3 cans left as the rest had frozen in the fridge) and it's about time I started preparing our evening meal.
And what a final meal it turned out to be - the fillet steak I'd bought from the supermarket proved to be as good as it looked and served with the last of the new potatoes, tinned sweetcorn, onions and mushrooms was so good we didn't need the beef burgers I'd also cooked on the BBQ. A fitting last evening in the camper.
