Aoraki / Mt Cook

Saturday, April 13, 2019  Takapo, excursion to Aoraki/Mt Cook

We returned to Lake Pukaki in the morning, so that we could now head straight north along it to Mt Cook Village, just below the mountain range. We took a long hike up to Kea Point, with all the Southern Alp peaks rising above us on a beautifully clear day. In the photo above, we had stopped at a turnout about halfway up Lake Pukaki.

Another multi-pretty photo at the rest stop driving to Mt. Cook Village. We again were blessed with a beautiful day when we craved scenery. If you recall, we weren't even supposed to be seeing Aoraki / Mt. Cook like this, because the tour was supposed to be on the far side of the mountain range, at Franz Joseph Glacier. But on the very day we arrived in Auckland, a storm had washed out a bridge on the only road to it. So, back at Lake Wanaka, instead of continuing north and then west around the back of the Southern Alp range to Franz Joseph Glacier, as Rick, Beth, and Cheryl had done, we went east from Lake Wanaka to Tekapo.

This is the visitor center at Mt Cook Village, which had a hotel, restaurants, the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center, a museum, and numerous tour opportunities to hike or fly into the mountains. We enjoyed the displays at the visitor center, which provided a history of the Southern Alps.

Greg recommended a "45-minute easy hike" to Kea Point. Sure enough, the flyer they handed out described it as "easy" and this way: "This walk gently winds its way through sub-alpine grasslands and scrub to the Mueller Glacier moraine wall, providing stunning views of Mt Sefton, Mueller Glacier Lake, and Aoraki/Mt Cook. 1 to 2 hrs round trip." We were soon to learn that their description vastly underestimated the difficulty and length of this HIKE.

Aoraki / Mt Cook in all its glory as we got closer during our "easy" hike toward it. I liked that there was a jet plane crossing in the sky behind it.

To the southwest of Aoraki / Mt Cook was Mt Sefton, at 10,338 feet. It was much closer to us as we hiked northward. You can see a helicopter, and there were numerous helicopter tours happening on this beautiful Saturday.

This is the view looking south, back at Lake Pukaki.

This is Kea Point, the end of our long and arduous hike.There's a viewing platform ahead, with Aoraki / Mt Cook in the distance to the right. Many in our group, including Janet, were not up to completing the hike to this point, because it got steep and rocky.

That black wall is the Mueller Moraine, with Mueller Lake below it (glacial melt).

Across Mueller Lake to the east was this remnants of a glacier.

My final close-up photo of glorious Aoraki / Mount Cook. As a way to soften any disappointment from our tour not going to Franz Josef Glacier as planned, Greg said that one does not have these spectacular views of the mountains from there (which is behind this peak to the north). Lucky for him, we had this perfect day when that explanation held sway!

 After we returned to the village, we ate some lunch in the cafeteria, and then visited the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center. It opened on May 29, 2008, just four months after he died, on the 55th anniversary of his triumph at Mt Everest.

Notice that they positioned his statue so that he's gazing up at Mt. Cook, which he loved and where he practiced for many years in preparation for his ascent of Mt Everest.

They had this photo of Hillary from 2007, at Aoraki / Mt Cook. I noted that his life span was close to my own father's. He was born six months before Dad, and he died four months after Dad.

This poster showed the path of his Everest ascent in 1953, with Tenzing Norgay. They named a final difficult spot, Hillary Step.

We left Mt Cook Village and drove back to Tekapo. Peter drove the bus down closer to the Church of the Good Shepherd, where I had walked the evening before, so that we could all visit this scenic spot on the lake.

Built of stone and oak in 1935, it has a picture window behind the altar that gives worshipers a distractingly divine view of the lake and mountains. In my photo, there is just one person at the door, but actually it was crowded with tourists, as it also was the evening before.

We had dinner again in the hotel. I recall our table discussing Netflix and other TV series we loved and recommended to each other. This is how Janet and I learned about The Rake.