To Mount Cook

10^th February

Banks Peninsular - view point down to Akaroa

Driving around Banks Peninsular

From the Bank's peninsula we headed inland via Geraldine bound for the glaciers at Mount Cook - it took a little longer than planned because everything was interesting and we had to stop - spending nearly two hours gemstone hunting on a beach called Birdling's Flat.

We then drove across the Canterbury Plains - which were surprisingly dry, arid farmland that was a little bland from a tourist point of view. Nonetheless, we pressed on through the fields seeing bright blue canals brimming with ice cold glacial melt water and decided we needed to charge the van up, get an early night and set off first thing in the morning for the mountains.

So instead of making it to Mount Cook, we stopped about 100km short and stayed the night at a campsite called Grumpy's, just outside the town of Geraldine. The very friendly site owner informed us there was a washing machine at no cost - so naturally we filled it and spent a very pleasant if not cold night waiting for our washing and planning our hikes for the next day.

11^th February

Millions of bees at Lake Tekapu

We woke up early and made it to Lake Tekapu by lunchtime, stopping right beside the lake and possibly but jostling for space with many other camper vans and coaches full of tourists. We had taken a look around the town and booked ourselves onto a night time star gazing trip on Mount John and a guided tour of the research observatory, meaning we also needed to find a secure place to store our van. 

We chose the camp site adjacent to the lake - which was a little pricey, and didn't really give good views of the lake given the height of the trees. 

Lake Tekapu

Due to this we walked into town and watched the sun go down over the mountains and took loads of pictures of the Church of the Good Shepherd.  At 10pm we walked back to the Earth and Sky office - unfortunately the start gazing trip was cancelled due to bad weather.

The Church of the good shepherd at Lake Tekapu

We walked back slowly, very disappointed and had a few glasses of wine and an early night instead.

12^th February

The following morning we were up bright and bushy tailed driving up to the observatory for a day time viewing instead.

The observatory on Mt John next to Tekapu

Then we finally made it to the Mount Cook Village from Lake Tekapo. We hiked along Hooker Glacier Valley for three hours, which crossed two swing bridges over very big cascading rivers. Then we drove on a dirt track to the Tasman Glacier accessed by a shorter walk of only about 45 minutes.The track was very steep but worth the views.

Mt Cook

A little tired we pushed on, desperate to make up for lost time and drove along Lake Pukaki from Mount Cook Village.We stopped in the town of Twizel for supplies and decided not to hang about but to head for a freedom camping spot - we were a little unsure as there were no other vans around but in the end we gave in to bad weather, and the imminent darkness and parked near to the canal about thirty minutes outside of the town near to an old picnic area and lake.

dodgy weather over Mount Cook

We battened down the hatches for a very windswept night, but still managed to get some sleep in. We think only one car passed us through the whole night and that was at about 5am.