Mt. Cook roadtrip (30.04.-3.5.2011)

My camera has been suffering from serious neglect and I also needed to get back on the road. Good timing because my friend Katrin was about to leave Christchurch via Mt. Cook and Queenstown and so we decided to catch up and meet halfway. I had hired a car from Queenstown and left for Lake Tekapo on a beautiful, sunny and warm Indian summer Saturday, allowing for various photo stops along the way. After I had reached Lake Tekapo I found Katrin sunbathing on a park bench overlooking the lake - what a great idea! We got rid of her luggage, organized fish & chips for lunch and continued sunbathing. Later we headed off for a photo shot at the church of the good sheppard and also at the Mt. John Observatory - right in time for sunset and a beautiful display of different colours. At the YHA hostel I later cooked dinner and encountered the same old questions: 1. Why do backpackers only eat pasta? 2. Why is recycling so challenging for some people? 3. Is it too much to ask for to turn off the stove when finished cooking?
Sunday came and we left for Mt. Cook (not without the mandatory stop at Lake Pukaki of course). Although a few clouds had found their way into the sky it was still warm and sunny and the clouds are quite a nice feature in pictures anyway. We stopped numerous times on the way to Mt. Cook Village as Mt. Aoraki overlooms every other mountain and mountain range in the area. Breathtaking as usual and we understand how lucky we were to actually see the mountain as it usually shyly hides behind the clouds. In the village we took a short walk into the Hooker Valley before making ourselves at home at the YHA hostel and spending a quite night with a bottle of wine.
I couldn't wait for monday as I had booked a tour with the Glacier Explorers. My second tour it proved to be and I was looking forward to seeing how things had changed. The walk across the moon like landscape down to the Tasman Lake was intriguing. Here a few facts about the Tasman glacier and lake: The glacier is the biggest in New Zealand with 27km these days. 18 thousand years ago, its lengths was 100km. In 1973 the Tasman Lake began to form as the Glacier continued its retreat. In 2009, the lake measured 2km at its widest point, 6.5km at its longest point and 200m deep at its deepest point. It started raining during the tour and it felt like temperatures were dropping too. That might as well have been the windchill, as the boot sped over the lake to allow for different views. Most of the icebergs broke off the Tasman Glacier during the February Christchurch earthquake that was felt in the Southern Alps as well. The guides kept their distance to the Glacier itself due to the fact that only 10% of an iceberg are visible above the water and nobody knows how far the 90% underneath the water are extending out into the lake. As icebergs melt (sunlight, warmer water that surrounds them) they continually try to keep the same ratio and that makes their movement unpredictable. I loved doing that tour again and I might as well be back in the future for a third trip!
We had to get back to Queenstown on the same day and so we said our goodbyes to Mt. Cook Village. When we got back into Queenstown a few hours later, it was almost time for sunset and we got rid of the car, went shopping and had yummy pizza before making ourselves comfortable in the hostel. The next day we headed back into Milford and Katrin stayed with me for a few days to relax and befriend a few sandflies. Mission accomplished I would say!