South Island, NZ

Tuesday, January 12. Today was Mount Cook day. We awoke in Wanaka to sunshine – FINALLY! After some breakfast and checking out, we hit the road for our 3 ½ hour drive to Aoraki Mount Cook National Park (Aoraki is the Maori name for Mount Cook). The first part of the drive was quite nice with rolling hills but second part of the drive was spectacular as we headed into the Park. Mount Cook is the highest mountain in all of Australasia, being over 3,755 meters tall. The Park itself contains 22 of NZ's 27 mountains that are over 3,050 meters high. With huge snow-capped mountains, a creamy blue lake and blue sky, it was beautiful. We arrived at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center at the base of Mount Cook around noon time. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest and he used Mount Cook as a training ground. The Center houses a small museum, a planetarium and a 3-D movie theater. Keith and I caught a 12:30 pm show in the planetarium which was pretty cool. The planetarium is the southern most planetarium in the world. As luck would have it, we were able to book a 1:30 pm helicopter ride. We had wanted to take a helicopter ride when we had been over by the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, but the weather had been cloudy and dreary. This was by far the nicest day we had had for awhile and the views of the mountains were spectacular. We were both psyched that we were able to book a trip on such short notice. The helicopter ride was AWESOME. There were just four of us in the helicopter plus the pilot and a pilot-in-training. They took us by a number of glaciers including the Tasman Glacier, the Franz Josef Glacier and the Fox Glacier. They took us all around Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. It felt like we were on top of the world. We got to land on top of one of the mountain in the Park and play in the snow. I even made a snow angel. The weather was perfect and the views were amazing. Our ride lasted almost an hour and was one the best things we've done on our trip. When we got back from our ride, we had some lunch and then went for a short hike in to see the Tasman Glacier Lake. All and all we had great day exploring Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. We finally headed out of the park around 4:30 pm. We had about a 1 ½ drive to Lake Tekapo, where we would be spending the night. Much of the drive was picturesque as we circled a lake with spectacular views of Mount Cook. We arrived in Lake Tekapo around 6:00 pm. We checked into our apartment and then went to explore town. There wasn't much to town. Apparently Lake Tekapo is the best place in NZ to see stars and as a result they have an observatory. Unfortunately the clouds had rolled in so there would be no star-gazing for Keith and I. We were just happy to have had such a beautiful day. After some dinner, we called it a night.

Wednesday, January 13. Today was driving day – destination Methven. After a late start, we stopped by the Church of the Good Shepherd - a small stone church that sits on the edge of Lake Tekapo. The church was charming. Lake Tekapo itself was spectacular with amazing creamy blue glacier water and snow-capped mountains situated at the far end (sadly pictures don't capture the remarkable color). We had about a two hour drive to Methven. The drive was pretty uneventful and the weather once again clouded up. We arrived in Methven early afternoon. With Mount Hutt ski area close by, Methven is a popular ski spot during the winter. It is very quiet during the summer, but it was a good stopping point on the way to Arthur's Pass – our next stop. After checking in, we explored town a bit and grabbed some provisions for dinner. We enjoyed a pitcher of beer at one of the local pubs and then headed back to our motel to make some dinner. After some yummy tacos, a bottle of wine and a little tv, we called it a night.