Had this man of mine gone insane?

Hey, the old current bun was out. Pulled back the curtains and there it was. So Mt Cook Village (Aoraki) was back on the agenda.

I think every man and his dog had the same idea as us 'cos boy was it busy. No chance of a parking spot in the village so we shot off down a track taking us to the Blue Lakes and Tasman Glazier. Here plenty of spaces and also the start of the 35-minute walk to the lookout. The small rivers were pretty full after all the rain in the last two days.

The Blue Lakes

Those views of Mt Cook, boy were we lucky. Only one day out of three the mountain can be seen, according to the locals anyway. Like all glaciers worldwide the Tasman Glazier is also receding at an alarming rate. It is said that in seven years another 4 km is expected to have gone in comparison of the 2 km that went in 100 years up to 1990.

The edge of the glazier. Bits of ice on the lake.

The end of the lake and that was where the glacier had been. The lake started forming in the 1970s

 Back to Twizel and Ian wanted to visit the Pelennor fields. All because of the Lord of the Rings and where one of the scenes had been filmed. Only trouble, it was down a gravel road...and extremely ridged gravel road which almost shook the old gnashers out! I wanted him to stop or at least slowdown but no he kept ongoing. Travelling alongside a canal..yep a canal taking you to the Pukaki hydroelectric plant.. and I started to question his sanity. "How will we turn around?" I asked, "And when will you know when we have arrived?" In the end, having been shaken for over 15 minutes, the crockery and our personal items been rattled so much until I feared there would be breakages, he eventually and in a huff, I might add, said he would not go any further. Luckily we came across another gravel road leading down to a camping ground. Crikey he was in a bad mood. Foot down I had to mention the flying stones bouncing on the underside of RP. Anyway, we came to a VERY VERY steep hill. "Good grief man your not going up that are you?" I whined in utter fear. Too right he was, Foot down, never mind those potholes, he was going up it. And up we went until halfway when we suddenly came to a halt. Those potholes were just too much for RP but Ian was not to be deterred and reversing part way, took a different route up the right-hand side which meant we were now tipping at quite an angle. Oh, he made it alright but by now I was hanging on for dear life. Silence reigned until Ian found another road on the other side of the canal and eventually found what he was looking for. He did apologise, he admitted to being unreasonable and in the end, we both saw the funny side.

That gravel road next to the canal

That hill. Trust me it was much worse than it looked!

We drove to Mt Cook lookout at the bottom of lake Pukaki and had yet another amazing sight. Had to get a photo of the two of us so did the timer bit on the camera, I got into position first leaving Ian to press the shutter button. He only just made it in time as clambering over the rocks was not easy!

Phew, made it.

Not 1 km from that canal we found a campsite. What a view overlooking Lake Pukaki and straight to Mt Cook. It was good we arrived early and got a level spot. There are vans parked everywhere now, most at a jaunty angle.

And lots of wildlife at Mt Cook Village

Very close-ground berries.

We evicted one spider only for another to take its place! This too was given the boot (not literally, I didn't squash it)