The kids had a rest one afternoon and wanted a cave to rest in…
As we drove up to Mt Cook, the wait turned out to be well worth it as the skies turned blue and the sun came out. Of course, our first task was to build a snowman…
We stayed a couple of nights and our gas heater struggled to cope with the cold -3 nights – I was very happy that changing the gas bottle in the middle of the night was a blue job! We did a couple of walks, up the Hooker Valley and to Kea lookout which had a beautiful view of Mt Cook.
Do you like the snow Jack?
Lucy found walking in the snow quite tiring...
On our way back down from Mt Cook we did a side trip to the Blue Lakes and the Tasman Glacier. I had read somewhere that the lakes should really be called the “green puddles” and that would certainly be more apt. The bonus for us was that the lake was iced over and the kids had great fun trying to walk on the lake and also “skimming" ice over the lake.
After the lakes we climbed up 160 odd steps and lots of rocks to the lookout over the Tasman Glacier and lake.
Our next stop was beside the Mt Cook Salmon Farm where the trout enjoy feeding on the salmon food – one of the workers told me a man had caught a 22 pound rainbow the day before. Mike had a morning of fishing without any luck and Jack and Lucy and I had fun watching the salmon being fed. Then as the snow started to lightly fall we headed to Lake Alexandrina, a pretty little spot near Lake Tekapo. Mike had hoped to get the boat out but the next morning we woke to a very thick layer of snow all around us! It was simply beautiful and we had a fun morning making snowmen, sledding and mucking around in the snow. The snow was so thick that we were trapped for a day and a half whilst we waited for the grader and a bit of a melt.
Not surprisingly we were the only ones in the little campground..
We stopped at Lake Tekapo for some more snow fun...
... and then headed over Burkes Pass to Fairlee where we enjoyed a night with electricity to help keep D cosy while the temps dropped dropped dropped outside. This morning is very cold but beautiful. Jack and Lucy are outside feeding the wax eyes at the moment but we’ll head off shortly and aim to do a walk before heading on the our next stop, Geraldine.
Lucy usually snuggles down into the bottom of her bed to stay warm but occasionally slips back into old habits...
