We awoke to yet another glorious day and chose to have brunch on the campsite verandah, explore the sights more and watch the tourists, mainly Chinese, Japanese and Korean, fill the two 6 seater helicopters for their 50 mins tour over these magnificent mountainsππποΈποΈποΈππ³πΏ
Mount Cook Village, c. 25 km north of Glentanner, is the closest us non-mountaineers (unless you are helicopter tourists) can get to Mount Cook.
The short drive was dramatic and akin to a warm up act for the main event..
Mount Cook Village itself is – apart from the obvious – dominated by the very stylishly designed Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre & Museum and, to a lesser extent, the equally stylish Department of Conservation (DoC) Visitor Centre.
Both provide “ring side” seats for the main eventποΈ
The DoC Visitor Centre includes a small chapel type area (with a modern take on stained glass windows) dedicated to all those who lost their lives on Mount Cook.
Since records began there have been 88 who have perished, which equates to c.1 per year.
There are detailed biographies for many of those lost…π
On entering this centre visitors are met with full-on views of Aoraki/Mt. Cook through large diamond shaped windows..
The exhibition is well worth seeing, especially the images of what clothing and equipment was used…
This part of the village is superbly laid out, befitting of its stunning location
Fed and watered we drove back along the valley to “tramp” – Kiwi speak for what we call “hill walking” and the North Americans “hiking” – up a couple of linked trails.
These are very well maintained with staircase type sections where the trails gets steeper. Thank you DoCβΊοΈ
Our 1st, lower, trail was a loop, allegedly, around the 3 Blue Lakes and, inspired by Morven’s exploits, Julie did some bouldering…
Turned out that the “loop” included a very overgrown bush section, so, re-tracing our steps, we headed for the much steeper trail up to the Tasman Glacier Lake – and the views fully justified getting the heart rate up βΊοΈ
The descent over we headed for a wee visit to Mount Cook Airport en route back to Glentanner π«
So, after yet another fantastic day, we reflected on whether we would better this scenery anywhere on our BTDU trip π€
BTDU 