Feb 14 – Another place we didn’t get to on the first trip. We had all day to drive about 4 hours so we leisurely had a second coffee while still in Christchurch and then stopped at a farm cafe for lunch midway. *We both had vegetarian lunches, but they didn’t serve goat or deer anyway.
The day was generally cloudy and socked in driving up, until we hit a weather front and the sky opened up totally blue over the totally blue Lake Tekapo. We had a nice long stop here walking along the lake and marveling at the colour. It definitely is a tourist town – but what a backdrop!
Further down the road we got our first view of the Mountain. All of the road signs have both the Maori name ‘Aoraki’ meaning sky piercer, and the Anglo name ‘Mt Cook’.
We didn’t book our stay very far in advance and we didn’t want to shell out a ton of money for accommodation, so we ended up staying in a strange setup. We had a room (just for us) with 5 bunk beds(!) and a toilet/sink. It barely cost more than 2 bunks in the communal hostel part (with the same 5 bunk set up), so it seemed like a good idea. There were excellent showers and kitchen/bbq areas in the campsite as well. It wouldn’t be our first choice for a long stay – it would have been great with 3 less bunkbeds replaced with a chair and desk maybe – but the view was outstanding.
Feb 15 – The weather was forecast to be good today and terrible tomorrow (remnants of Typhoon Uesi in the Tasman Sea coming through – heavy rain and wind warnings) so we needed to get some hiking done stat! The valley was full of low cloud in the morning but we set off hoping it would burn away. The good news was the trail wasn’t too busy yet. We were doing the 10km Hooker Valley Trail, which is one of the 3 ‘Great Day Walks’, and we’d heard it gets extremely busy later in the day.
When we arrived at the terminus of the trail it was still pretty socked in with low clouds. We had plenty of snacks so we pulled up a rock and decided to wait a bit. It was pretty neat to see parts of the mountain appear amidst the swirling cloud. When we first arrived it was just cloud, and it was a shock to see such a tall peak appear (about 3km elevation above us). We were eventually rewarded with a great view.
On the return walk the trail was getting very busy, so we felt pleased with our choice to have started early. We had a picnic lunch and then headed up to the Tasman Glacier Lookout. It was a short climb with a nice view of the glacier toe. Look hard – it is in the valley to the left of the peak, and just above the water. You might be searching for something white… The glacier is covered in rock, and is quite black. The black colour is heating the ice quickly, and this glacier is not long for this world.
Tasman Lake and Glacier 
We stopped by the Sir Edmond Hillary Centre in the Hermitage Hotel in Aoraki Village. There is a small museum and a cafe. Brent needed an ice cream reward for completing the hike with a minimal amount of ‘grumping and complaining’.
Feb 16 – The weather didn’t seem all that terrible in the morning, but the next hike we were interested in went into the alpine area and wouldn’t be a wise choice with a poor forecast. Our backup plan was a bit of pampering – we headed back to Tekapo (about an hour away) and spent the majority of the day in the hot springs there. It was excellent – not too busy, 3 temperature pool choices, beautiful backdrop. It was super relaxing.
So Bron didn’t break her 10K step streak we went for a little walk in the regional park in Tekapo after our soak. The ‘Te Araroa’ Trail, which goes from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island runs through this regional park. Bron is quite obsessed with the trail and spends many evenings reading blogs of people doing it end to end. It was fun to walk a few kms of it. Brent’s fear is she’ll someday announce that’s what she’s doing for the next 3-5 months…
Feb 17 – Off to Queenstown today. The drive was very scenic in a bleak kind of way. We stopped at a lookout at the top of one pass to stretch our legs. This turned out to be a bad choice – while we were at the lookout a man was turning his motorcycle around and lost his grip, dropping it onto our rental car. He was very upset and apologetic. The dent is pretty small and the car already had many dings so it may not be an issue. He insists we contact him if there are any charges when we return the car. So after a quick exchange of details with our new Belgian friend, we were on our way. (He is responsive – the email he gave us was not a dud.)
We made a short stop at Roaring Meg power station.
Our spot in Queenstown looks like it will suit us well. It’s an AirBnB that didn’t have any reviews but we took a gamble as Queenstown is very expensive and it was half the price of all the others. The gamble paid off! It is really lovely and the hosts are fantastic. It’s a new listing which is why they don’t have reviews yet. The location can’t be beat and the small apartment is very modern. A definite plus is our hosts little dog, named Bob, who likes to sit with us while having dinner on the patio.
Brent And Bron Abroad 