We slept in a little bit to get ready for our big day. After some breakfast, a little computer work and a quick stop at the coffee shop we headed north and then west toward Aoraki (a.k.a. Mt. Cook). Aoraki/Mt. Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand at just over 3,750 meters. The drive was incredible.
We cruised along in our Focus admiring the scenery as we passed through forest,
and along the reservoir.
The weather was still a little windy and wet at times, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we drove through some of the most impressive mountain scenery we have ever seen.
We were on our way to Mt. Cook Village in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park to visit the...
The Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre is a very cool information center that has all kinds of information about Sir Ed, his adventures and his philanthropy, information about Aoraki/Mt. Cook (both Maori and European), Mt. Cook Village, New Zealand aplinists, and a theater/planetarium. We spent many hours looking through the exhibits and watching the videos. We also watched a movie about the Maori legend of Aoraki in the theater and watched a couple of shows about the stars and the universe in the planetarium.
After a quick picnic lunch we headed back east toward the town of Lake Tekapo. Along the way we took a few (thousand) additional pictures of the awesome scenery.
Once we reached Lake Tekapo we checked into the hostel then headed down to the lake to check out the view.
As you can see the view is pretty amazing. We spent a few minutes enjoying the view and taking a few pictures of the lake and the beautiful little church located right on the edge of the lake.
The Church of the Good Shepherd is still regularly used by a few different faiths. After our visit to the lake we walked back to the town and sat down for a beer and an awesome pizza at the local pizza joint. After dinner we headed home to watch a little T.V., work on the computer, and get some sleep.
Day 153,
We woke up, got cleaned up, got packed, and loaded up the car. Then we ate some breakfast and made some picnic lunches before heading down to town to get a coffee and do some computer work (free internet at the cafe). After we finished our coffees we headed out to work our way toward Methven (closest town to Mt. Hutt ski area). Along the way we stopped to have some lunch and enjoy the view.
We continued along the road enjoying the view all the way.
Once we reached Methven we stopped by the hostel, but our room wasn't ready yet, so we headed into town to find some telemark rental skis and check out the town. We found some skis, so we headed back to the hostel to get our car then headed back to the ski shop to pick up our boards. Back at the hostel we got into our room, unpacked, and made some dinner. While eating dinner we learned that Mt. Hutt opened this afternoon for the first time in 3 or 4 days and the snow was excellent. So, excited for the day tomorrow we went to room to prepare and get some sleep.
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