We awoke to blue skies and warmer temperatures than yesterday afternoon but I feel that will be short lived as the clouds started rolling in at 10:00 am. Another day and another struggle to get kids out of bed.
Even though we didn’t do the observatory tour last night, you can still drive up during the day to have a look around and check out the view. As it turns out all tours last night were cancelled due to the weather and it doesn’t look very promising for the rest of the week.
It is fairly steep going and a tight road up to the top and it is amazing how many people make the trek up by foot but we got up there in the motor home.
The view from the top is spectacular with snow capped mountains to the west and the bright blue Lake Tekapo to the east. It even started snowing while we were up there.
I did the short walk around the mountain grabbing some geocaches and we seemed to have grabbed some passengers for the return journey. A couple of Malaysian girls that had done the 2.5 hour walk from town appreciated a lift back to Tekapo.
After dropping the girls off and filling with diesel it was traveling time again – this time to Mt Cook which is only a couple of hours with a few stops along the way to take photos of the lakes and mountains. It seems that every time you come around a corner there is another breathtaking view or vista.
First stop at Mt Cook was the information centre which had a lot of useful information on the glaciers and the history of the region.
It was now time to do some walking. We decided on the Tasman Glacier walk first. Even though there is a new sealed road to the start of the walk, the first single lane bridge is original and the motor home just fit through it. This walk soon gets the blood pumping and even though the distance isn’t too long you have to climb up the moraine piles to the viewing areas. It is even possible to get down to the Tasman Lake to touch the water and given that there are icebergs floating in it – it is cold.
Walking back to the motor home, rather than stick to the track we headed cross country over the moraine piles and of course the kids didn’t want to follow Dad and Mum and guess what we were back 20 minutes before the kids.
Tonight’s campsite was at the base of the mountain – what a backdrop. Jenny got to try the oven out and roast lamb was had for tea.
Tomorrow will be a big walking day with a couple of glacier walks.
