Day 55

The day started with blue skies and sand flies… To avoid becoming their breakfast we drove to the lookout and finally saw Mount Cook! A little cloud was still covering the top though as we ate quickly our sandwiches.  It was a very sunny day as we started to drive to the mountains. Lots of tourists heading that way and had to slow speed to look at the view. We got held up by a filming crew before searching the blue lakes and Tasman Glacier. The walks were easy and nice, giving us a great view of the ice floating on top of the lake near the glacier. The other lake was actually green instead of turquoise because it no longer received glacier runoff and had algae growing in it. We drove back to the “town” near Mount Cook to go to the DOC site. They had an incredible modern building well designed. After getting information on other walks, we went to DOC campsite where all walks were starting. Having lunch, we got a whole family of ducks begging us for food. We headed like plenty of other tourists and guides to the Hooker Glacier Lake.

We got quite hot under the sun during the 3 hour track. We crossed three swinging bridges over turquoise rivers to reach the Hooker Glacier view. It was nice but crowded. Quite tired (except Jack), we had a little ‘tea time’ break before walking to Kea Point and eyeing off Sealy Tarns, a 3 hour return climb up the mountain. What started as a quick look lead to a long climb late in the afternoon. As Jack raced ahead he caught up with a girl also trying the steep trek. After some introductions between heavy breaths we continued the climb with Kiara, an Italian from Adelaide. Jack rushed ahead to the top while Kiara and I took our time. The view was brilliant Mount Cook was hiding but Mount Sefton towered next to us. After some water we carefully made our way back down as it was still steep. At the bottom we saw Kiara off, and then returned to Sue. As we left the valley the mountains cleared, showing spectacular vistas in the side mirrors. Back at Lake Pukeki we went to a different site for the night. Hidden in the trees we watched the stars come out before sleeping.

Entree Written By Marianne and Jack