We left at 6 am this morning to drive to Mr. Cook and the glaciers. It was worth it - Aoraki National Park (formally Mt. Cook) was beautiful. There are over 20 mountains in the park, the largest of which is Mt Cook (12k ft). There are also numerous glaciers. There were so many and the park so vast we only saw the larger mountains and glaciers, and a sampling of the others. We were not able to get as close to the glaciers as we did in Norway (mainly because of time - you have to hike in to them). But these were bigger and more numerous in a relatively small area, than those we went to in Norway.
After a quick lunch we started off on a 4.5 mile hike to get a closer view of Mt. Cook (mom, you'll be glad to know they listed the avalanche advisory as low). The walk included climbing over rocks, up and down hills, and over two suspension bridges. We had gorgeous weather, sunny with some wind (I did not know it was possible to walk into the wind both coming and going). But this also meant we were dustyl tired, and sweaty when we returned - but I kept up with tje others (my asthma really is better out here). The view along the way was unbelievable, and well worth the effort.
The path we walked was called the Mueller lake lookout, because it goes to Mueller Lake, which is formed by run-off of the Mueller glacier. Elyse and Adam - bet you didn't know they named a glacier after you.
Okay, another quote I saw today that fits: ...my tiredness meant nothing; for me it had been a day of triumph. Sir Edmund Hillary, describing his reaching the top of Mt. Cook in 1947. (and, no Bart, you do not want to climb this mountain, as it is 10k feet from the base camp to the summit).
Interesting fact day 11: studying the lichen and plants on glacier moraines (land previously covered by glaciers), they are able to determine the advance and decline of the glaciers in previous centuries.
12 years ago
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