Lake Pukaki > Mt Cook Village (45km, 3h15)

Today we are going to see the famous Mt Cook (Aoraki is the original name but mister cook changed it…). I heard about this place many times since I’m here and finally the day is coming :-)

Map.

This day stars very well with a wonderful sunrise. I’m still in my sleeping bag taking pictures haha :-) But this morning the sandfly are here. It’s much worst than moskitos because they bit you and they are so many everywhere.

The west coast is the worst because it’s more wet. I’ve met some French men last time with Josiane and they told us to have good protection : socks above the trousers and repellent stick on all exposed part. Usually, when one of them bits us, we start hitching after four days. But if we hitch it’s getting worst and worst. Bad sandfly!

Anyway, this sunrise is beautiful and I like taking pictures of it :-)

The colours are really nice :-)

And finally the sun is coming!

Mt Cook, we are coming!

The same in panoramic.

Closer…

Closer!

Horizontal.

Vertical.

Mathieu with his trailer :-)

We are entering in Aoraki national park.

This road is really windy now and it seems long to reach the village.

After a long time fighting the wind we finally arrived in Mt Cook village.

In the i-site there is an interesting museum that I will visit if a take the time…

That’s the view from the museum and for the first time I can see my polarizer filter working. I have to handle it but soon I will have the adaptor and I will catch better pictures!

There is a short track, “Kea point” that we can do this afternoon so let’s go.

We were walking when suddenly we saw a woman picking some fruits. We had a closer look and we discovered that there is so much raspberries everywhere! Hmmm it’s so good! We will cone back tomorrow with containers :-)

The windy valley. The village is on the right hand side in the shade.

After 40 about minutes we are getting closer of our daily goal.

Kea point! From here we can see the old glacier’s position. The big sandy hill was let by the glacier when it comes back up.

In panoramic as well :-)

And we are front of the information centre again, eating and waiting the sunset to find a good free spot for tonight.

We came back on the Kea point track to find a place but finally we will find a perfect place directly in the village, hided in the kind of garden. The pictures of the place are in the next post :-)

And the last picture of Mt Aoraki for today :-) Good night!