So, it all began around 4pm on friday or something like that. Megan, Brittany, Allie, Emily(aka Sesno), John, Michael, Gabe and myself loaded into the 8 person minivan we rented for the weekend with the intention of heading up to Mt. Cook. Mt. Cook is the biggest mountain in New Zealand and we wanted to check it out and do a little hike right around there. So the journey began. We headed up the coast along highway 1 and make a quick stop at Shag Point. There wasn't any particular reason we stopped there, other than the fact that it was called Shag Point and a break was nice. Well, we get out of the car and check out this beautiful coastline point thing. Down on the rocks there was a seal just soaking up some rays. This was the first seal I've seen in this country. Plenty of sea lions but seals were the one marine animal that I hadn't seen. We didn't torment this dude and let him continue enjoying the sunshine as we made our way to this little cove thing. In the cove, we found another seal just enjoying the warm sunlight as well as this old abandon boat hanger thing. It was kinda creepy inside cause there was this old rusted out boat just chillin there along with a bunch of old pieces of metal and such. Cool beans but it definitely would have been a creepy place at night. We then got back in the mother ship and continued our journey.
About an hour or so later, we made another stop to get some groceries for the weekend. Our food was gonna include chili, pasta, pb&j, eggs and some snack foods. Good stuff. It was then time to drive the remaining few hours to the general Mt. Cook area. Eventually, we got to this town called Tekapo, which was right on Lake Tekapo. We like to refer to it as take-a-poo. Righto. We drove around town for a little bit looking for a campsite to set up shop for the evening. One campsite was kind of a pain in the ass to get to because you had to go to an office and get a code or something like that, so we just left to try and find our own place. So we drove down this dark road to the middle of nowhere and found a place right by the lake to camp. We parked the mother ship right off the side of the road and started making dinner. We only had a tiny little stove thing and one pot, so we opened a bunch of beans, sauce and rice and dumped them on in to make some chili while a couple guys set up the tent. Speaking of the tent, we brought 2, but as it turned out, the one we borrowed from a kiwi host in our complex did not have any poles. Oops. Not a big deal though, the 4 person tent I rented from Unipol was huge. We then got down to eating some dinner. The chili actually turned out to be pretty good and everyone was satisfied and got ready to go to bed. 6 of us slept in the tent that night while Gabe and John slept out on the beach.
We woke up in the morning to an absolutely beautiful day and a dope location. We knew we were right by a lake the night before, but we had no idea of the rest of our surroundings. There was absolutely nothing around. Behind us there were some hills and mountains, and across the lake there were some even bigger mountains. It was really a perfect location. We then packed up our schtuff and got into the mother ship so we could meander on down the road to get to Mt. Cook. Along the way, we decided to take a break and get out of the van for a bit of a stretch and wander about. We pulled over next to this little stream that led out of some mountains called Fred's Stream. The water in Fred's Stream was really fresh, crisp and cold. While we were wandering along the creek bed, Gabe jumped in and said it was the coldest water he had ever been in. I wasn't about to join cause I didn't feel like getting all wet at the moment. That would come later. Anywho, we made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had some lunch. For some reason, the girls decided it would be wise to use the handles of plastic spoons as knives to spread the goods. Didn't really understand the logic because it would have been much simpler to just use the actual spoon part. Not important though. After we munched a wee bit, it was back in the mother ship to get to Mt. Cook.
Shortly there after, we arrived at the base area for Mt. Cook and parked. The base area was this really nice resort type place that had a great view of the mountain and the surrounding valleys and other smaller mountains. We put some schtuff in my backpack, grabbed our cameras and headed towards the mountain. The resort thing had this trail that led all the way out to a lookout point that was pretty close to Mt. Cook with a glacial reserve of water down this big sort of bank. The weather that day was so clear and we had a great, close up view of Mt. Cook, and the glacial lakes were a really cool coloured blue/grey that resulted from the combination of glacier water and the rocks in the valley. Cool beans. We all soaked in the beauty of the place for a bit longer, and then headed back down the trail to another trail that would lead us up one of the neighbouring mountains of Mt. Cook.
At the bottom of the track, there was a sign that warned us of avalanche danger and that we should not proceed. Nonsense poopy pants. There wasn't any real danger that day, but I guess in the past couple of weeks there had been a lot of snow, so they were just letting us know. Righto. We started up the trail and were greeted by some steepness. Seriously, the trail we were taking got really steep out of nowhere, but it wasn't that big of a deal and we continued onwards. Eventually, we got up to this great little look out point with a huge rock to sit on and just observe our surroundings. We were situated about half way up the mountain and had a great view of the valley below and a direct view of Mt. Cook. It was a great place to just sit and hang out for a bit. We were gonna just stop there and then head back down, but a few of us decided to continue up the trail further.
Further up the trail, the views starting getting even better. As we got higher, there was just a lot more you could see. It was so beautiful and clear up there with absolutely nothing to obstruct your views in any direction. Along the way, we started to encounter a little bit of snow to walk through. At first, it was only a few inches deep so your foot might sink in a little but, but not too bad. Then, the snow started getting a little deeper, causing your leg to drop all the way down at some points where the snow was up to your knees. It was pretty cool. The snow was real fun to just walk around in, and it made the maneuvering upwards a little more difficult. Every once and a while, Sesno and I would hear Allie shriek from further down the path behind us. It was hard to tell if there actually was an issue or not because she shrieked at absolutely every instant her foot sank in the snow. Anywho, we eventually made it pretty high up on the mountain and decided not to go any further. The snow was getting a little deeper and there was still a decent way to go to get to the very top, despite the fact that we were pretty far up there. Sesno, Allie, Megan and myself convened on a big rock as we watched Gabe butt sled through some of the snow a little bit further up. Butt sledding done, Gabe joined us on the rock, and we all started to head back down and meet up with John, Michael and Brittany. Getting down the snow was a little trickier because you would start to slip and slide down the mountain a bit with not too much to hold onto. The five of us made it down safely though, and met up with the other three so we could head back to the mother ship.
Back in the van, we headed back towards lake take-a-poo so we could set up camp once again. We tried checking out that campsite we gave up on the night before to see how much it would cost. $18 a person!? Say what? Usually they just do a charge per tent, but these fools clearly did not know what was up. We all decided it would be a much better option to head on back to the place by the lake where we spent the previous night. What was even better about staying there a second night, it was still light out when we got there, so we got to set everything up in the daylight and catch a schweet sunset. Also, Megan and I decided it was a great opportunity to jump in lake take-a-poo. No one else wanted to join so we jumped in real quick during the camp setting up process. That water was quite chilly. Not as cold as the water in the Doubtful Sound, but still pretty cold. It was nice and refreshing to jump in though, and it made me feel a little cleaner after the hot and sweaty hiking earlier in the day. Once cleansed and dried, it was time to start building a fire. Gabe, John and I collected some wood and brought it down to the beach. Gabe set up a little circle for a fire pit and added some kindling to get the fire started. After a quick light of the lighter, fire! Huzzah! We got a good solid fire going and collected some more wood so we could keep it goin. Fire situated, we all sat around it as dinner cooked on the little stove thing. While we waited, Gabe cooked some pieces of vegiburger on a rock in the fire for everyone to snack on. Good stuff. The pasta was then ready to be eaten, and we each took a little bit of that. It wasn't quite as good as the chili the night before, but it wasn't bad.
A little while later, we were all just sitting around the fire when a car drove down the road and pulled over at our campsite. A couple peeps got a little nervous as to what was going on, but Gabe and myself told everyone to just relax and wait for them to leave. Sure enough, they left. Kinda weird that they pulled into the campsite, but no big deal. A little bit later though, that we think it was that same car came driving down the road again. This time, it was shining a spot light on the fields on the opposite side of the road as our campsite. I made a comment that they might have been hunting and using the light to try and see rabbits. They drove past our camp, and this time they didn't stop. About a hundred yards from our camp though, the car stopped and we heard a rifle shot. Rabbit hunting. That had to have been what it was because the fields here are littered with tons of rabbits that you can always see running around. Kinda funky to have these guys drive by and hunt, but they didn't bother us. We all just hung out by the fire for a while longer before we decided it was time to go to bed. This time, we squeezed all 8 of us inside the 4 person tent. Tight fit but everyone made it inside.
Next morning, Sunday, we were greeted by more gorgeous weather. We all mozied out of the tent and took in our surroundings once again. It was seriously such a beautiful campsite. We then started to pack up the tent as a couple of peeps began cooking some eggs for our breakfast. The eggs had a little remnants from the dinner the night before, but they turned out pretty well. A couple of us then decided to take another quick dip in the lake before hitting the road to head back down to Dunedin. The water was no warmer this fine morning. It was definitely a nice and refreshing wake up before having to get in the mother ship.
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