nigeyboygoeswalkabout

After finally getting the SD cards for the camera I headed down to Lake Tekapo ( photo on left) and then on to Mount Cook. Tekapo was very nice but the guests staying at the hostel were the most antisocial I've encontered so far. They virtually all had their heads stuck in their books and talking seemed like an effort to them, so I went and did some training near the lake. When I returned I met a really nice Belgian couple who gave me some good travel tips so the day ended on a good note. Next morning saw me drive over to mount cook.


Lake Tekapo


The terrain on the way was quite unusual with perfectly flat plains and mountains that jutt straight out of them. The YHA at Mt Cook is set in a stunning location and was jumping with people so it wasn't long before I met Sarah, a really nice English girl, whom I later went walking with. In the evening I met Daniel an absolutley hilarious Dutch guy who had done just about every extreme activity in NZ and seemed to thrive off being scared to death.



Approaching Mt Cook


Two days after I arrived there was a wee surprise when I walked into the kitchen to see Amanda (the wwoofer from Onuku). Amanda had just arrived from Tekapo with Maggie, a German girl and we all decided to do a little roadtrip down to Queenstown together after doing a couple more walks at Mt Cook. As by now I was camping further up the valley I agreed to meet them the following day to do Mt Olivier. The weather was pretty impressive that night with rain, hail, sudden gusts of wind off the mountains and surreal periods of dead calm, but the next morning I awoke to the view you see below.
The view from the YHA at Mt Cook


So with the weather looking good we made an early star and headed up Mt Olivier to do the Muller hut trail. The views into the adjacent glacial valleys were spectacular and we saw several avalanches from the hanging glaciers into the valleys below. I left the girls to take photos at the lower ridge just before the Muller hut and then continued on to the summit which made for a good scramble as there is no track beyond the hut.



The view from my tent!




A shot of the tail end of an avalanche and a self portrait from the summit of Mt Olivier with the main divide of the Southern Alps in the background






To end, here's a shot Mt Cook taken from lower down ...... do you see anything?...........yes Innes, I used the same technique as on the Buchaille Etive Beg ;-)