We had bacon and eggs for breaky after the usual photo session of beautiful reflections of snowy mountains on crystal blue lakes, black swans with their cygnets etc. Ho hum... haha.
Then we drove a short distance to the Mt Johns Observatory for Sky and Earth. A 4km upward winding drive from the entrance was rewarded with MORE spectacular views and of course more photos. Its just irresistible!
We left Lake Tekapo realising we'd forgotten to go and see the little church on the lake. What a shame, but too late to go back. On to Mt. Cook. We pulled up at a rest area beside yet another pretty lake and had our normal breaky (muesli) for lunch as it was just a quick stop. We pulled in to the motor camp halfway to Mt. Cook (Glentanner) to check out the facilities and prices, but $NZ37/night for power or $NZ33/night for unpowered was just a bit too much. Its probably what we'll be paying in Queenstown though. We drove the remaining 25kms or so to the Mt. Cook village and found a parking spot. We went for a short walk and talked to the 'i place' lady at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre (for ants). She was really helpful and friendly and suggested that the walk to Kea Point Lookout would give huge rewards and would take us about 2 hours return. Normally it would take less than that, but the track was completely snowed over. Ooooh, snow! And lots of it! She also said the DOC camps were closed because of avalanches, but they had opened up the Governor's Public Shelter for campervans for the DOC fee of $NZ6/per person/per night. We decided to stay the night.
It was about 2:30pm when we set off for our walk that would take us closer to Mt. Cook and the floating glacier and great photo ops. It was a GREAT, hard walk through hard, crunchy snow, with the promised reward at the end. I felt like my legs were going to fall off though, hard going for a very unfit ME! We did jog for part of the way back for fun though. I was carrying my heavy camera bag all the way, while Ian carried the tripod. We were totally exhausted but very happy to have done it.
4:30pm. Right, park the camper, set up for the night. Early showers (cos we know it's gonna be butt-freezingly cold tonight!), so while the water is heating, I made 4 scones in the cast iron pot. 1 cup flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 1 egg, sultanas and the rest of the cream made perfect scones. I preheated the pot on high gas, plopped in the 4 bits of dough, turned the heat down to medium, lid on, then waited for 20 mins. Voila! 4 puffy scones!! Mmmm.... coffee and scones before nice hot showers. Then to organise dinner. Chicken thighs cut up and cooked, onions fried, and make a gravy. Bung them on fresh bread with loads of butter! Mmmm.... too good for the rich people!!! Relax for the evening. Day 9 done and dusted!
We heard a strange sound later in the night before we went to bed. Ian reckoned the Kea's were back. I opened the door (with torch in hand) and was surprised to find two ducks (Paradise ducks), one brown, one with a white head asking politely for some crumbs. They were quite fat too I might add. They seemed happy with 1/4 slice of bread each and wandered off into the darkness.
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| Lake Alexandrina reflections |
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| The view from Mt Johns observatory |
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| Me, having a little rest in the snow on the walk to Kea Point Lookout (the snow was actually very hard) |
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| Ian and I with Mt Cook and the floating glacier in the background |
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