Day 5 and 6 - Mt Cook

Mt Cook - the highest mountain in New Zealand. After spending a day at Lake Tekapo, we expected the same good weather in the coming days. Of course, things always happened not in our expectation. During the night we stayed at Lake Tekapo, there was rain and thick cloud developed in this region.

On the fifth day morning, we got up early as usual, then self check-out from Tailor-made-backpackers and waited for the bus, which was provided by Cook Connection, to Mt Cook. The transptation by Cook Connection was a package, which included two trips. The first one was from Lake Tekapo to Mt Cook YHA, and the return trip was from Mt Cook YHA to Twizel, and we would get off at Lake Tekapo again on the second trip. The total cost was NZD120 for two.

I thought Cook Connection is a small, family business. The driver was nice and provided a lot of information on the way to Mt Cook. He also told us that he was in the movie of the Lord of the Rings, who acted as Orcs(?)! By the way, the bus would stop on the way for us to take some photos.

That day was a bad day for photo taking, because the rain was quite heavy and dense. At the time we arrived Mt Cook, the rain was so heavy that we should not go out to have a walk!

We stayed at the YHA at Mt Cook, and we would spent two nights with other six people. More importantly, the date we arrived was our marriage anniversary, so I would expect there was some noise made by my wife...Anyway, the 8 people room cost us NZD72. There is not many options in Mt Cook accomodation, either very expensive or not that cozy, so book early...

We planned to have see Mt Cook glacier and we would go there through Hooker Valley Track. This is an easy trail, no hiking or trekking experience is required. As the first day weather was so bad that we could not go, we spent our time at the Mt Cook Museum, The Old Mountaineer's Cafe and The Hermitage Hotel.

After some sitting, sighing, and coffee drinking, we went back YHA hostel and made our dinner. The pantry at YHA was spacious and with a lot of equipments. Backpackers, couples and families would come and made their dinner!

After the dinner, we stayed at the common room in the hostel and watched a movie with other travelers. All of us were stuck at the hostel because of the weather.

As we would leave next day, I was deteremined to get up early to see whether we had chance to see glacier on next day morning. Luckily, the weather was getting better and the rain stopped briefly in the morning. So we caught this chance and went to the Hooker Valley Track.

Hooker Valley Track is at the north side of The Hermitage.

The weather seems getting better south of Mt Cook.

Beautiful weeds! And you could see the thick cloud around Mt Cook, some rain patches too!

The first swing bridge on this track. The lake on the left is not Hooker Lake.

This one is the most stable swing bridge on the way to Hooker Lake.

On the way to Hooker Valley, the trail is flat and easy.

The second swing bridge, this one is long and very windy when you walk on it. The water below running very fast!!!

Took a photo before crossing!

After crossing the second bridge, the path would become more winding and with many big rocks. The cloud was getting thicker when we moved on.

I think this area will become flooded during rain season, so they build a wood platform on it.

Finally! We could see the glacier from the other end of Hooker Lake. It was very windy here!

Could you spot Mt Cook???

After staying for a while, we started to going back. This side weather looked great!

I like this picture very much! The mountain with snow is Sealy Range.

Another picture looking back to Mt Cook plain.

Day 4 - Lake Tekapo

We got up early today as we have to catch up a bus from Queenstown to Lake Teakapo. We packed our bags night before and walked to Queenstown downtown. We have a breakfast there and waited for the bus at Intercity Coach terminus. We booked the bus through internet in Hong Kong. The booking process was smooth and easy as the online website is very easy to use. Remember you can get a cheaper price if you book early, so no delay, the last tickets are always expensive! The price for two was NZD52.

The bus left at 8:05am and the commute would take 4 hours. We stopped at Jone's Fruit Stall on the way. The fruits were cheap so we got some and also a snack called fruit skin, which is a fruit purne which went through a drying process.

On the way to Lake Tekapo, we could see Mt Cook and local people said it is uncommon to see her snow cap as Mt Cook is always cloudy. Well, we really saw the common look of Mt Cook later and you will see what I mean if you keep reading my blog!

Tailor-made-backpackers

So after 4 hours bus trip, we finally arrived Lake Tekapo. After getting off the bus, we went to the hostel we would stay that night. It was Tailor-made-backpackers and we booked a twin room which cost NZD70. It was an accomodation place for the construction workers who came here to build dam and canal for Lake Tekapo hydro electricity project. After the construction was finished, it was turned into a tourist hostel. The hostel area was very nice, with big backyards and clean facilities. Though the room was small, we were content.

You won't miss it with this big sign!

The backyard at Tailor-made-backpackers.

The pantry in Tailor-made-backpackers. We could make a good meal by the utentils provided there.

If you go through the webpages about South Island, Lake Tekapo is a place that comes up very often. Lake Tekapo is located at the central part of South Island, the water is turquoise blue which is very beautiful. Also this area is famous for star gazing, thanks for very (or no) light pollution. We planned to star gaze but we have some bad lucks because of rain!

Lake Tekapo south shore. The blue color is from the rock flour crushed by glacier.

Church of the Good Shepherd

A very popular spot for tourists. You can go inside to have a look too!

In memory of the early shepherd settlers.

Mt John Observatory and Astro Cafe

After visiting the Church of Good Shepherd, we walked towards Mt John. There is a Mt John Walkway to the summit, and there are something interesting over there. First, there is an observatory for star gazing; second, there is a cafe on top of the mountain. Though we would not stay overnight there to have star gazing, we definitely wanted to enjoy coffee at Astro Cafe! The walkway is fairly easy, no climbing but just walking. After 1 hour or so walking, we arrived the summit. You can have a birdeye view of Lake Tekapo area at Astro Cafe. See the panorama below!

Astro Cafe is at the summit of Mt John, next to the Earth and Sky Obseravtory

Panorama at Mt John. You can see Astro Cafe at the right side of this picture. The best cafe view in my experience so far!

After have coffee at the Astro Cafe, we took Tekapo walkway back to Tekapo town area. This walkway was a kind of tricky as it went through a farm area, so you have to go through some sheep fence and the walkway is not very well marked (as compared with the trails in Hong Kong).

We returned to the town area and  bought some sausage and spaghetti at Four Squre Supermarket. We made our dinner at the hostel then.

There are some restaurants at Lake Tekapo, but we didn't try them as they were pricy or fancy. But we found a cafe, Run 77, which makes good coffee and simple meal.

Run 77, the only restaurant that we had our meals at Lake Tekapo.

Day 3 - Doubtful Sound, better than the 8th Wonder of the World

On the third day we arrived Queenstown, we had a whole day trip to Doubtful Sound. This was one of the highlights of our trip, as New Zealand is famous for her natural scenery!

Doubtful Sound is 180km (112miles) from Queenstown. We already joined a group tour two days ahead. The only tour company that offers Doubtful Sound trip is Real Journeys and it has an office at Queenstown. There is a way to save the tour cost, if you are YHA member, you can get a discount. This information is never shown on website, and you can only find it in Real Journeys' office! As we didn't join YHA before leaving Hong Kong, we couldn't have this discount!

There were several options for the tour package you can choose. The main difference of them was with or without meal provided. We decided to prepare our lunch so we just chose the cheapest package. The day trip was organized in the following format:
Queenstown->(chartered bus to Lake Manapouri)->(Ferry to Manapouri Power Station)->Manapouri Hydro Power Station->(chartered bus to Doubtful Sound)->Doubtful Sound Cruise tour

In the morning, we got up early and walked downhill from Fernhill to Queenstown downtown. The chartered bus would go around Queenstown area to pick up other people who joined the trip. Then we had a two hours commute to Lake Manapouri.

The pier at Lake Manapouri. Tourists will get off the chartered bus and board the ferry to Manapouri Power Station here.

The scenery was already gorgeous to me on Lake Manapouri. But better was yet to come.

The weather was great. Not so cold under the sun.

After one hour on the ferry, we arrived Manapouri Power Station.

A model describes how the power station works. The pipe connects Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. Water goes through the pipe and turn the turbines to generate electricity.

We boarded another chartered bus at the power station and the bus took us to Doubtful Sound.

Some very old trees along the dirt road to Doubtful Sound.

Stella Fall

We stopped at Wilmot Pass. The long bay ahead is Deep Cove.

A catarman cruise we boarded after arriving Doubtful Sound.

The U-shaped valley was made by glacier. During ice age, the heavy ice kept pressing the valley and deformed the valley into U shape. There are a lot of this kind of valley in the fiords in New Zealand.

Getting more windy towards the entrance of Doubtful Sound.

At the area we board on the curise, the water was calm as still water. But starting at the middle of the trip, water was getting choppy.

This picture was taken at the entrance of Doubtful Sound water. Seals were having sun bathing on rocks.

Good weather for this Doubtful Sound trip. The captain of the curise said it is not common to have calm water in this area. So the cruise had a chance to get out of Doubtful Sound and we could look back to see how "Doubtful" it is.

Looking for dolphin, but in vain.

A guy tried to hold himself by strong guts.

We came back Queenstown at evening. And we had Fergburger for our dinner.

Day 2 - Cycling

As we are both triathletes, we always go cycling in Hong Kong. In our original plan, we would have two cycling sessions in our trip. We canceled the cycling as I mentioned before, but we still wanted to have some workouts in our trip. We planned to rent bicycles at Queenstown, but Jeff offered his mountain bikes to us!

Fernhill->Queenstown->Arrowtown->Arthur Point->Queenstown (47km/29miles)

We started from Fernhill, then cycling anti-clockwise to Arrowtown. After lunch, we cycled back by the north side route.

 On the way to Arrowtown, we passed by many sheep farms!

We brought our own helmets with us!

We stopped at Arrowtown. This was a town developed by Gold Rush, and many Chinese miners lived here during that time.

We are cycling back through Malaghans Road and Arthurs Point Road. The traffic was much lesser. But it was a hot day, both of us were a little bit dehydrated.

There was a hot spring resort close to Arthurs Point.

The bridge is right over Shotover River. The road coming down to the bridge is very steep.

Some big speed boats hovered on the river and splashed some water on the passengers. Is it really fun?