Cloud Piercer

I left Wellington Sunday morning and flew to Christchurch on the South Island. At the airport, I met up with my father who had arrived that morning after a marathon trip from Michigan. He was in good spirits and happy to have the trip behind him. We stopped by our hotel and dropped my things off and then headed into town while he was still awake. We planned to leave Christchurch the following morning, but we had a day planned to tour it at the end of trip. We walked around the cathedral square and then found a restaurant called Sticky Fingers for dinner. It was a nice meal and Dad stayed awake. When we left dinner we had just missed our bus, so we walked around the town a bit more. We stopped into Christchurch Cathedral and watched ten minutes of the evensong. Back at the hotel, Dad fell asleep at 8 pm and I watched DVDs.

Monday morning we picked up our rental car and hit the road. We drove south down the east coast and then cut westward. From the beginning we followed the Southern Alps to our right and as we drive we drew closer and closer. Dad managed to drive on the left side and his only issue was to keep hitting the wiper instead of the turn signal. We stopped at Lake Tekapo and took a few minutes to contact home to let everyone know Dad had arrived. Then we had meat pies at a small bakery before walking down towards the lake. Lake Tekapo was a gorgeously deep turquoise color and was ringed by the Alps. The scenery on our drive continued to be breathtaking with rolling hills and beautiful snowcapped mountains.

In the early afternoon we arrived at Mt Cook Village located in a valley surrounded by mountains including Mt Cook. The Maori call it Aoraki, the Cloud Piercer, and it is the tallest mountain in Australasia at 3754 meters. The village is dominated by The Hermitage, the hotel complex we were staying at. Our room was actually a short drive away in a small set of motel rooms, but they were very nice and view was spectacular with huge mountains looming out the windows.

From the Hermitage, we went hiking on the Kea Point trail. We walked on relatively flat ground for about 25 minutes before the trail began winding up a small hill. At the end was Kea Point, a lookout above the Mueller Glacier with the Hooker Valley beyond and the mountains all around. Mt Wakefield was beautiful and we marveled at the ice flows on Mt Sefton. Aoraki lived up to its name and was shrouded in clouds. We stayed at Kea Point for a while enjoying the view. The walk back was downhill and a nice stroll back to the hotel.

There was a short trail behind the hotel called the Glencoe Trail I wanted to go up, but due to the steepness Dad decided to rest in the lobby instead. I climbed up the trail to reach a lookout of the valley. The view was stunning and to make things better the clouds around Aoraki were thinning and I could make out most of it. I took plenty of pictures and soaked in the view before returning to the hotel.

For dinner, Dad and I went next door to the lodge where they had a nice bar and a huge glass window. We both had lasagna as we watched the mountains in the twilight. The clouds surrounding Aoraki had completely cleared and we got a full view. As we walked back to the room, the last light of the sun was illuminating the peak of Aoraki. The view was so stunning it looked unreal like we were in some sort of movie of theme park. It was a long, but beautiful day.

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