Having just finished another lovely dinner, with the obligatory alcoholic beverage(s), and now back at our Youth (!) Hostel, it is time to look back on today’s events.
· Rise: not too early, approx. 07:00 hrs
· Breakfast: frugal, salami and cheese sandwich c/w tea/coffee
· Pack: too much stuff, and as out of practice taking way too long
· Check-out: smooth and quick (or v.v.)
· On road: 09:00 hrs
· Navigation: QM with a reasonable degree of precision and firmness
· Driver: AM with a great degree of proficiency
· Scenery: beautiful
Today’s story:
A 400 km drive was to take us from Christchurch to Mount Cook via the “Inland Scenic Tourist Route 72”, and scenic it most certainly was. The great enjoyment of the drive was very likely partially due to the excellent weather experienced en route. Great vistas of mountain ranges were interspersed with wonderful country-side sights. As the roads were nice and quiet, which we suspect had nothing to do with the fact that today was Sunday, driving was sheer pleasure and without any major stresses.
As indicated by our Lonely Planet guide, Fairlie should be a nice place to stop for lunch. Now, for those of you to whom the name “Lime Tree” means more than just a shrub, you will understand exactly what I mean when I mention those words in the same breath as the word “food”. Probably due to the fact that the nourishment presented to us here deserved more than just a casual seeing to, we spent an hour savouring the flavouring and pulled out of Fairlie at around 1 o’clock.
The final part of the drive was undertaken by Q, and again I must comment on his exemplary behaviour behind the wheel. I am seriously considering the possibility that he’s finally turned a new leaf and has seen the light..... when it comes to driving that is.
Anyway, the drive that eventually lead us to our current place of domicile was absolutely stunning, especially around the glacier lakes. What colours!!! What mountains!!! What glaciers!!! What scenery!!!
We were in our room (shared amenities NOT the sleeping space) by just before 16:00 hrs and were back on the hiking track by just before 16:00 hrs (ok, I exaggerate, perhaps a bit later).
The aim was to get as close to Mount Cook as could be expected in the short time available. The only thing between the mountain and us was, apart from the wind, terrain and the distance, a raging current of glacial run‑offs. Beautiful, but a bummer.
Having wetted our appetite sufficiently after about 2 hrs of traipsing around ,we stopped off a the famous Hermitage Hotel, which is probably more famous for its ugliness rather than the fact that it’s the oldest hotel in NZ. Oh, and it also burned down twice (or was it 3 times?). Malicious intent could be suspected if the previous incarnations were as ugly as the current one.
Unfortunately, the Edmund Hillary Centre located at the hotel was already closed so the option was to either eat (now why mention this as the first option?), or wait 1 hr for the movie on Mount Cook NP in 3D..... ??? ..... ???
Right, so we didn’t see the movie but we did have a wonderful dinner. Actually, I think we saw something better than the movie: we saw the real things whilst having dinner.
21:30 hrs now and looking at Mount Cook from our bedroom window. Unfortunately, we weren’t afforded with magnificent sunset views as it doesn’t appear the sun sets in quite the right place. However, a mountain as beautiful as this one doesn’t really need more to show off its beauty.
We’re currently enjoying our aluminium mug filled with Chateau Neuf du Pape, also known as Delegat, Hawkes Bay, 2008, Cabernet Merlot, with Q doing the techie stuff in preparation of tomorrow.
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