Aoraki/ Mt. Cook up Close

Aoraki is the Maori name for the mountain that was later named Mount Cook.  It is the highest peak in New Zealand at 12,316 ft.  Nope, we didn't climb it.  BUT we did go on an extremely memorable tramp last weekend up a mountain that looks straight across at Aoraki.

It was a difficult hike that started with 1810 stairs as the warm up.  That took the 6 of us about two hours to get us to the midway point: a few alpine lakes ("tarns") and a picnic table with a fantastic view of the valley below.

The trek was made more difficult by the presence of snow; a good sprinkling had powder sugared the area on Friday night.  So the second half of the tramp was more difficult as we got higher in elevation (more snow).  Without stairs we were now just scrambling up a cliff.  

See the little colorful figures among the snow/boulders?  That's us!

An hour and a half later we had summitted and treked across the ridge to find the hut - a very welcome sight indeed!  Well, minus the snowball wielding ogre (our friend James) guarding the passage.

New Zealand has a fabulous network of back country huts where, for a small fee, you can camp for the night.  This one was quite large with room for 28.  It was clean and really well-organized with a radio roll call from headquarters making sure each member of all parties had made it up.  Once at the alpine hut we relaxed on the deck to the sound of distant avalanches and waited for the sunset.  

Delicate shades of orange and pink made Mt. Cook look like a sunset sherbet ice cream cone.  We were lucky to have incredible weather all weekend.  The clear sky plus good timing - 2 days after a new moon - made for fabulous stargazing that night.  

We saw an incredible swath of the Milky Way as well as the Southern Cross that is only visible from the southern hemisphere.  Our friend Forrest was able to set up his fancy camera with a long exposure and actually capture our hut with the night sky in the background (photo credit: Forrest Lanning!)

The next morning we were also blessed with a sunrise over the snowy peaks.

 

The way down was no easier than the way up.  Some snow had melted from the day before which made for a very slushy, muddy and slippery clamber down.  That hill was STEEP!  See me in the foreground?  Sometimes I just had to sit on me bum and slide.  We also caught an up close view of the neighboring glacier.  Check out the fissures in the ice.  After another 3.5-4hours hiking it was definitely a challenging trip, but the views made it SO worth it.  Marshall and I couldn't have been happier with what was such an epic New Zealand adventure.

Little Windows

Instead of writing a whole post, here are some little windows into what we've been doing...

Paragliding in Queenstown for my birthday was totally awesome!!!  Marshall, the fab videographer, on Coronet Peak.

 A couple weekends later we left our dry side of the island and checked out the wet west coast.

Up a misty hill we went to catch a glimpse of a glacier peaking out from behind the clouds.

Next stop: "Pancake Rocks" - limestone formations that look like a stack of pancakes coming up out of the ocean.  The best part was feeling the waves thunder up through a hole in the rocks!  

Plus a super cool blow-hole... the water from a wave way down below shot up through a tiny chute in the rocks and sprayed out as if from the body of a whale.

Back at home we caught a stunning sunrise before Marshall left for work one morning.

And Princess Leia (at a May the 4th Be With You party) decapitated the 5 de Mayo pinata.  Too bad we didn't catch a photo of Marshall's Cinco de Moustache.  Maybe next time.  Oh wait, may there be no next time :)