Nathan's New Zealand and Australia Blog: Mt. Cook

2/5/2007 - 2/8/2007

Well, this post has an absurd number of pictures, but I think you'll see why. Today was a big travel day with our destination being Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. We departed from Kaikura pretty early in the morning and drove to Christchurch to do some grocery shopping for the next few days as well as to watch the Super Bowl, which was fun. Although it wasn't important to me, I kind of wanted the Colts to win so that I wouldn't have to listen to ESPN saying that Peyton Manning can't win the big game over and over again. After the game we continued our drive to Mt. Cook. Below is a view of Mt. Cook from our drive. Tonight we were staying in a hut called Unwin Hut, which had a spectacular view of the mountain.

We went on a glacier cruise in the Tasman Lake on the morning of the next day. It was amazing. Basically we rode in a little boat as our guide showed us multitudes of glacier and ice formations. I don't really understand the science behind the glaciers, but I did appreciate their beauty. Check out the pictures.

This one is of a hole through a mass of blue glacier ice.

While not exactly allowed, our cool guide allowed a few of us to get in that hole for some pictures. Here I am.

I found the next formation particularly interesting. It is clearly the left pelvic bone. Just look at the acetabulum and the crest of the ilium. Yeah, I guess should be going to medical school.

This next picture is pretty interesting as well. The arch will likely collapse within the next day. It is amazing how dynamic these glaciers are, even on a daily basis. Apparently the formations will break apart overnight and look completely different the next day. I had no idea how quickly these things could change.

At the end of the glacier cruise, Philip and I backflipped off the boat into the glacier lake, which happened to be 2 degrees Celsius (about 36 degrees Fahrenheit). As Adam would say, it was quite "refreshing." I don't think I was in that water for more than 15 seconds.

After the glacier cruise, we prepared for our next expedition beginning that afternoon. Basically we were going to climb up to Mueller Hut, stay there for 2 nights, and then climb down the next day. The hike was supposed to be pretty grueling since we would be going up 1000 meters to an elevation of 1800 meters.

The hike up to Mueller Hut was incredible. It was a lot of hard work since it was entirely steep uphill, but the spectacular views made it so enjoyable (even with a 40 pound backpack on). It took around 3 and a half hours for me to hike up. I could have gone faster, but I wanted to savor the sights. Just take a look at these pictures and you'll understand.

This next picture is of Sealy Tarn. A tarn is an alpine lake. It was actually really hot outside, and I went for a quick swim in this tarn. Quite refreshing.

Mt. Cook is the peak in the center of the next picture.

Here are a few pictures of the brilliant sunset over Mt. Cook viewed from Mueller Hut.

Since we're in the Pacific Challenge "Extreme" group, a few of us decided to walk back down to the village and then climb back up to Mueller Hut the next day. Maybe we're a little crazy, but at least we didn't have as much weight in our packs.

This next picture is of a kea, an alpine parrot.

I like taking pictures of reflections.

On the last day when we departed from Mueller Hut, we decided to get an early start because rain was in the forecast. Below you can see some of the clouds rolling in. Going down is really not as easy as many people think. While it is much less cardiovascularly taxing than going up, going down just destroys your knees. If I get more into backpacking, I think all invest in some walking poles to save my knees.