Out and about in Mt Cook

So, after jumping out of the aeroplane we headed up the road to Mt Cook village. It's part of a huge National Park that contains the majority of NZ's highest peaks (22 over 3,500m in the park). Mt Cook itself is massive, 3,750m high, the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere / Australasia (depending on which publicity you read).


After the excitement of skydiving, we decided not to go up Mt Cook (takes years of training, a week to do, and lots of people don't make it back), and settled for the Mueller Hut instead, 1,800m up (For me, this was akin to climbing Cook). Well I huffed and I puffed, and we made it to the top. Amazingly stunning views, we were in the snow line (could hear and see ice falls crashing down nearby mountains), and could look down on to the Hooker and Mueller glaciers, or across to Mt Cook and Mt Sefton. The first photo was taken on the way up, looking past Tom out towards where we camped and Lake Pukaki.



The second photo was taken at the top, Tom gazing serenely across at Mt Cook (vowing to do more summit climbs on our next trip).

To be honest, getting down again was quite hard, I ouched my knee 1/2 way, and hobbled and cursed the rest of the way. After a bit of rest at the van, we decided the only way to cure it was red wine and pizza at the local cafe.....

The last photo was taken today - we just went on a little walk (tho legs surprisingly ok today) to see the Tasman Glacier lake, complete with dirty icebergs.