Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Mt. Cook--Tallest mountain in NZ


With the mountains smiling at us in the morning, we make our way to Mt. Cook.  Still amazed by the roadside scenery, we stop upon the Mt. Cook hotel and grab a map for our next trek.  We drive a bit down the road, make our usual coffee and eat breakfast and off on the trails we go!

At the base of Mt. Cook we begin our four hour hike.  Up and down boulders and paths, checking out many waterfalls and indigenous plants, crossing several long bridges—they swung with the wind and our weight-- surrounded by mountains we made our way to the base of the mountain and a lake with a glacier. There were mini icebergs floating on the lake and the bet we made was for one of us to swim to one of the icebergs…neither of us took the bet.  The water looked gray and was ice cold.  We skipped some rocks in the water and climbed over others and made our way back.  It was incredible scenery and we could feel the dramatic change in temperatures along our route.


We have begun our journey towards Mt Cook


Some of the scenery we passed on our hike...Shelley wants more pics!!


That little iceberg in the background is called Shelley's Berg...and it will sink ships! 


Shelley needing help on the suspension bridge.  I think she'll make it


Shelley trying to make new friends.  They all ran for some reason, but she loves them anyway


Back on our way to Queenstown—the adventure capital of the world, or as Shelley and I would say, “the most overpriced adventure town in the world”.  It costs around $2.50 to shower, $7+ for an ice cream, $4.35 for a McD’s Cheeseburger $0.79 in Chicago, $30+ for an average meal, $169 for the same shoes Shelley bought in the US for $49…you get the drift.

Got to Queenstown, found a campsite, made dinner, tried using the internet we PAID for and it didn’t work, the temperature plummeted and our heater broke.  Shelley slept in two coats and blankets…time to buy another heater.

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