That's free water (I won't lie...I love a country with potable tap water), free coffee/hot chocolate, raspberries from a roadside stand, and good old PB&J. Significantly more cost-efficient that the $14-15 USD pp they wanted to charge us for continental buffet breakfast. Food here is, generally, pricey - but these breakfasts are a total rip-off (and breakfast is virtually never included in the price of your room).
Thus fed & watered, we headed up to Mount Cook. Aoraki/Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand (3,700 km/12,300 ft), and is part of a national park that contains more than 140 peaks higher than 2,000 meters and 72 glaciers. That's a lot of altitude, and a lot of ice. Mount Cook Village is near(ish) the base of the mountain, and the closest settlement/base camp/resort spot. We drove up along Lake Pukaki. As it was still early, there were lots of low-lying clouds. We caught a brief glimpse of one of the high peaks (although I can't swear it was Mount Cook):
We arrived, did a quick scout of the village, and took stock. We didn't plan to do any glacier hiking (we have a trip planned at a different spot next week), nor did we plan to pay for a helicopter ride/glacier landing. We decided that the best way to see some of the surrounding land was to run the Hooker Valley Trail, which was purported to be about 6.5 miles, round trip.
We changed into our running clothes, topped up our water, and headed out. The weather was spectacular, about 65 F and sun-sun-sun. For the first 2 miles, we could appreciate the views from a distance:
We enjoyed the gravel-ly trail, had a moment of silence at the monument to climbers who perished in these peaks, and admired the view for a bit with a friendly fellow from the UK. About 2 miles in, we came to the first of 2 swing bridges:
I could watch flowing water for hours. It's nearly as mesmerizing (to me) as the washing machine. The view off the bridge looked something like this:
Nature is POWERFUL.
We continued our run, across a second swing bridge and toward the glacial lake. As the Garmin ticked 3 miles, 3.5 miles...still no lake in site. We were starting to worry a bit, but about half a mile later, we were rewarded.
Just a bit more running, and we'd made it! About 4 miles one way. Quite flat along a surface that varied from very small, packed pebbles to large stones where we basically jumped from rock-to-rock. Worth every second:
The return trip required quite a bit of people dodging/passing - but nothing that someone with plenty of Dirt and Snow Cheap experience couldn't handle. ;-) We finished with 8 miles total: hot, dry, thristy - and elated.
I really don't have the words to describe how incredibly gorgeous this area is - starting on Sunday's drive, the magnitude and beauty of the scenery have been phenomenal every moment. Even the cheap rooms that we've rented have had five-star-resort views. Everywhere I turn, nature is putting on another show. How blessed we are to bear witness to it!
No comments:
Post a Comment