New Zealand - Day 7 & 8

Thursday May 24, 2018

For the first time all trip we took our sweet time getting up and heading out for the day, taking full advantage of the 10 am checkout time. It felt really nice. The first step on our itinerary was to drive north through Lindis Pass to Lake Pukaki. As we hit the pass we entered into some more snow; nothing dangerous, just pretty to look at.

After driving the hour or so we came up on Lake Pukaki. The lake is known for its electric blue color due to what they call "glacier flour" which is basically finely ground rock particles from glaciers. I had a hard time believing it would actually be "electric blue," but it turns out I was wrong. In fact I think that's the perfect way to describe it. At first sight of the lake we immediately pulled off to the side of road because neither of us could believe the color.

After snapping a picture or two we continued on to the car park for the Kettle Hole hike, which was the one and only thing on the agenda for the day. The hike wasn't long, but took us along a small bluff speckled with sheep and overlooking the lake.

We kept snapping pictures of the lake in hopes of capturing it's true color, I'm not sure we ever really got the shot though.

We spent maybe 1-2 hours hiking around the area. The weather was perfect and it felt great to stretch our legs after the car ride.

Eventually we made our way back to the car and after a quick restroom break (NZ is awesome and has public restrooms nearly everywhere) continued our drive up to Glentanner Holiday Park in Mount Cook/Aorki National Park. As we were driving we could see the clouds rolling in and knew that a storm wasn't too far off. We attempted to get a room for the night, but they were ridiculously expensive and so decided to tough it out in our van.

By the time we found a spot and got somewhat settled it started to rain and didn't let up for the rest of the day and into the night. We spent the evening making dinner, chilling in the lounge, and watching some shows on our iPads. The temps dropped below freezing that night and we were both very happy we'd decided to bring our down sleeping bags with us.

Friday May 25, 2018

We woke up early to a chilly, misty morning and a lovely sunrise. I was sure to snap a few pictures before heading to the kitchens to make breakfast.

Once breakfast was eaten we quickly cleaned up, got ready for the day, and packed up to head out for the day. (The best thing about living out of a van is the ability to get up and go quickly!) Naturally not 10 minutes outside of camp we had to pullover to take more pictures haha.

One of the prettiest things about the area were the bright orange "fall colored" pine trees. I'd never seen pine trees turn colors in the fall like they did here. It was really really pretty.

Back on the road, the drive to the Hooker Valley Trek car park was maybe 45 minutes, and eventually brought us into some snow. The turnoff for the car park had a small gate on it saying the road was closed, but we were still 2 kilometers from the trailhead and other people had obviously gone around the gate and driven on the road, so we decided to follow suite and break the rules too.

About halfway down the road we came up on a bunch of what looked like high schoolers on foot; some of them tried to flag us down and bum a ride haha. Looking at them we were both very happy we'd decided to drive rather than walk. Eventually we made it to the car park, where 3-4 other cars were already parked, put on our warm clothes and took off.

The first part of the hike was all in the shadow of the mountains and pretty chilly. It was gorgeous though; quiet because of the fresh blanket of snow, and early enough that we had the trail nearly to ourselves.

It took us through a small pass, over some rivers, and deeper into the mountains.

Eventually the path spit us out into a small, isolated valley, completely surrounded by beautiful mountains, and fully bathed with sunlight.

I got hot.

We never did get to the end of the hike, I'm not even sure there was and ending. After hiking for about 2 hours we'd had our fill and decided to turn back. On our way back we started passing lots and lots of people. Made me happy we'd had the early start that morning.

We arrived back at the car to find the roads plowed and open (yay). We jumped in, and took of back down the way we'd come for another hike to the Tasman Glacier. I guess we lucked out again and while we were doing the Hooker Valley Hike everyone else was at Tasman Glacier. By the time we got to the turnoff the road was completely empty.

It was a quick 15 minute walk up to the lookout point. Perfect after our long hike before. Doubly perfect because we had it all to ourselves.

Pretty pretty pretty. I couldn't decide which is more beautiful. The view looking at the glacier or the one looking back out at the valley it carved.

That concluded our time in the Mount Cook/Aorki National Park. We felt it was time well spent. Our final minutes in the area were spent attempting one last photo op to try to capture the "fall" pine trees before leaving.

Never could get one that did them justice.

The rest of the day consisted of driving the 1.5 hours to Lake Tekapo, grocery shopping, checking in at the holiday park, lounging in the TV room, and dinner before finally turning in for the night.