A beautiful drive into the Mount Cook national park........everywhere you go & look in New Zealand is lovely
At the Hooker Valley there are a few different walks you can do. I parked along the road to avoid the car park fees.
I walked the hooker valley track first which takes you round the base of the looming Mount Sefton & its glacier - huddleston glacier - which you could hear cracking & creaking.
Every so often you would hear a crashing of an avalanche - although you couldn't seem to see anything & I wasn't quick enough to capture it on video.
This bridge & sign made me laugh.....and nervous........... all at the same time
Only part of the track was open so I headed back to do another walk - to Kea lookout, where you could see Mount Cook - New Zealand's tallest mountain at 3724m.
And this was the first woman to climb it - impressive - and she had to do it in a skirt as was the convention of the time......
It was taller then too, 3754m, but after a major rock & ice avalanche in 1991 & further erosion, its now 30m smaller.
This memorial to mountaineers that died in an avalanche
And this story, of how the first to ascend Mount Sefton found they had gone the more difficult way up, only realising, when they got to the top, that the other side was a much easier climb
There was another walk - to Sealy Tarns - which claimed to be a 600m elevation.....I didn't realise it meant straight up!
I think the heat was getting to me.....
I found it really hard, just lots & lots of big steps up the mountain side & I think I was starting to hallucinate because I started seeing weird stuff.....like Mount Cook having a grumpy face:
....and the word 'UP' written in the mountain side:
....and Che Guevara in the lake!
Oh come on!!
There was also pac man & lizard rocks
I was glad to get to the top! The views are always worth it!
You could trek on to Mueller's hut, but that was another 500m up & takes another 4 hours so I gave that one a miss......who knows what hallucinations I'd see if I attempted that walk! 🤣
It was easier on the way down, although my knee was hurting a bit.....all those steps.....got chatting to an English couple on their honeymoon - well she was a midwife from Glasgow - but they live in London.
After here I just wanted to find a lake to jump in, but got diverted by a sign saying Tasman glacier, so I had to investigate.......more steps! ....but only a few this time
Because the glacier has shrunk, the lakes here are no longer fed by glacial water but by rain, which is warmer, so algae grows, making the water look green (above) instead of blue.
I didn't even see the glacier straight away, covered in grey dust & rocks. You can see from the board, pictured below, just how much of it has gone, compared to 1990 - you can see the lines in the sides of the mountain where it used to come up to. It is quite shocking.
A man was there with his son, and the son read the board and said, "Look Dad, in 1990 this was full of ice"
"1990!!" The Dad exclaimed, "just 30 years ago!?"
He turned and looked at me and said, "Oh my God, what have we done eh!"
We chatted a bit. He is Indian but lives in America, on holiday with his family.
I was thinking to myself, if I had come here when I travelled in my 20's, what a sight I would have seen then.
I wonder how much longer the glacier will be there. Someone else was saying, not so long ago, there would be ice floating on the water, even in summer.
Seeing this, really does hit it home. ....we have to change......some how.
I drove back for my 3rd night at the same campsite. I was hoping to have a swim in Lake Pukaki, on the way, but couldn't spot a way down so I didn't get my swim.
The duck family that walk around the camp looking cute & hoping people feed them:
As a 'responsible camper ' I didn't, but some were.
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