Anyways, back to today's trip. We left, heading south out of Christchurch for the first time in a while back along the road towards Queenstown and Te Anau (trips 3 & 4). It was foggy and looked like rain but we weren't about to let that dampen our spirits. By the time we reached the mountains in Burke's Pass the skies had cleared a little and there were some spectacular views of snow-capped mountains near the road. We passed by Lake Tekapo (brilliant blue) and turned North up the road towards Aoraki.
We arrived at our destination, Hooker Valley, around 1pm and started walking up the valley, crossing a couple swing bridges and fording a stream. After crossing the second bridge, Mt Cook was supposed to be seen to be "dominating the valley," instead there was a large ball of cloud and fog "dominating" the scene. A little less spectacular than I imagined but the surrounding mountains were still quite beautiful. The landscape was littered with glacial features and I had quite a good time finding and naming various types of features in my head (erratics, moraines, kettles etc.).
Just when we reached the terminus of the hike and were about to turn around (the rest of the track was closed due to avalanche risk) it began to rain. We got quite wet on the way back but it didn't really hamper the fun. Instead of following the trail, we clambered among the rocks beside the glacial river and lake, enjoying finding our own paths and skipping many rocks on the water. I fell quite a few times among the rocks, but I was already wet enough that it didn't really matter.
After returning to the car, we drove home.
No comments:
Post a Comment