nz day 3: on to mt. cook

We left the Cardrona Hotel after a great night's sleep and filling breakfast.  That was one fantastic place to stay.

Nathan's journal entry: "Breakfast at Cardrona was simple but pretty good.  I tried a bit of their yeast spread (something ending in 'mite').  It tasted like condensed bullion or a Japanese seaweed snack."

The scenery as we left Cardrona was phenomenal.  We thoroughly enjoyed the drive.

Impressive jagged hills in the distance.

 

Nathan's journal entry: "The drive up from Cardrona to Mt. Cook was great.  Most areas were the rolling mountains that don't look impressive in pictures, but it was still beautiful.  We also saw large deer and some turkeys."

We found a large field full of the prettiest flowers called lupin.  They made Kristin sneeze like crazy, but we had to stop and enjoy them anyway.

Kristin's journal entry: "...the drive to Mt. Cook is lovely.  We saw lots of lambs and the most beautiful purple and pink weeds.  I wish American weeds were more like New Zealand weeds."

We took this photo in between sneezes.

 

Just outside the turnoff to Mt. Cook is a small town called Twizel.  If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, they talk about Twizel in the appendices of one of the movies (either 2 or 3).  They filmed some of the Rohan scenes around that area.  It is an absolutely beautiful place and was a great place to stop for a quick lunch.

Kristin's journal entry: "Twizel isn't much of a town, but the views are excellent and we had a good lunch at Poppies (I had the pumpkin thyme risotto).  The drive out of Twizel was amazing!  Most of the drive is by Lake Pukaki - the brightest blue lake I have ever seen!"

Lake Pukaki - yes...it really is that blue

As we got closer to Mt. Cook, the roads got a bit more interesting with lots of one-lane bridges.  We realized about then that our camera had gotten a little inebriated.  The owner of the Cardrona Hotel had given us some mulled wine in disposable coffee cups - we put them in our cupholders so that we could heat them up and drink them that evening.  Unfortunately, the wine soaked through the cups and puddled in the bottom of the cupholders.  The camera was in a compartment next to the cupholders and ended up soaking up some of the wine.  The display screen stopped working, so we couldn't tell what we were taking pictures of, if the pictures were focused, or if the camera was even working at all.  All of the rest of the pictures in this post were taken with the drunk camera - they turned out better than we thought!

Nathan's journal entry: "After we gave Kristin's camera a drink of mulled wine (thanks to leaky cups), the rental car got pretty intimate with some shrubs as we met oncoming traffic on a one lane road.  The results looked bad, but most of the 'scratches' washed off.  I'm still worried about what it'll look like in good light."

We stayed in a place called the Mt. Cook Alpine Lodge - we highly recommend it!  Once we got there, we did a few really interesting short hikes.  

Kristin's journal entry: "After checking in, we hiked to the Tasman Glacier.  It's really impressive, and I enjoyed seeing all of the icebergs in the lake.  We're not sure how our pictures are going to turn out considering the camera got drunk on mulled wine.  Hopefully it will fix itself as it dries."

Icebergs floating in the lake.

 

 That large mass of dirt is actually the glacier!

To get an idea of scale, look for the bit of yellow at the edge of the lake...that is actually three boats (each able to hold about a dozen people) and a dock.

Kristin told him to make a face for the photo, and this is what Nathan picked.  Silly boy.

Kristin's grandfather told us that we had to eat at the Hermitage...so we did.  :-)  Thanks Pappy!  The food was excellent.

Kristin's journal entry: "Dinner at the Hermitage was good (Nathan ate himself silly), and then we went on a short forest walk to get views of Mt. Cook during the sunset."

Mt. Cook is the snow-covered mountain in the background.  It's New Zealand's highest peak.

Nathan's journal entry: "Mt. Cook is beautiful, and the day has been almost cloudless.  We took the Glencoe trail up to a bench where we watched Mt. Cook turn red at sunset."