Mt

Jan 15th, 9:35pm: landed in Christchurch after traveling for over a day. 

Jan.16th: hung out until VAustralia released my hostige bag. On the beach. Went south to Timaru. 

Jan. 17th: sun bathed, ran, ate in Timaru, headed west and UP to the mountains and Lake Tekapo. It's beautiful! The water is a turquiose color from the sediment of the glacier run off. 

Jan 18th: wake up in Lake Tekapo and head to Mt. Cook....this is where things got interesting/blog worthy. 

Our "hopefully clear" day turned out to be the beginning of a nasty storm. We woke up kinda late after a terrible night's sleep (due to the rain and wind threatening to knock over our campervan). We headed out Mt. Cook village, an hour or so drive away. Past another blue lake, Pakaki, the wind really picked up and the lake's waves looked like ocean swells. Nothing deterred us. 

Mt. Cook was shrouded by cloud cover much to our disappointment. But we drove through the wind to the villiage and straight to the Hooker Valley trail head (note, the name "Hooker valley" sperred many jokes from Pete about him getting to experience Heather and I in our natural habitats. Hardy har.) The mountains seemed to sprout up from the plain in brute fashion, like only young mountains can. 

With the wind theatening to lift the van off her wheels, Pete said, "well, I'm still up for it." heather and i exchanged glances of dismay. I wasn't convinced but when Pete saw us hesitate, his disappointed face was enough to turn me. I agreed to climb in the wind and the rain...did I mention it was raining? No? Well it was. Through the rain and the gale-force winds, I agreed and Heather wouldn't be left behind so we started to layer up. 

The three hour hike that should have taken us 2 to 2.5 took 3.5 hours. We're all in good shape. We're "I take the stairs two at a time" people. "you walk fast" people. And we could barely step....no scratch that. We stopped dead in our tracks by the wind. It howled. We could hear it coming. Singing down the river valley, bouncing off the canyon walls and cherendo-ing as it got closer. Like a steam engine warning you of approaching danger, it sounded. When it hit, it was enough to knock us over. It didn't come alone either. Like smoke, the wind whipped up the water below, bringing it into the air and hurling it at us. We looked like Al Roker Standing on the gulf coast during a hurricane. I didn't know what to do but laugh. 

After the second suspension bridge, it got worse. It blew us off of the boardwalk and into the grass. We had to hang on to rocks and bushes because we were being blown off our feet. The trail led to an alpine lake and glacier dam. We knew when we were close because the airbourne water shot up from beyond a hill so high it looked like a small burn site had recently been extinguished. Unfortunately, we were right. 

As we crested the hill I got the full force of the wind and had to hunker down. Holding onto a boulder I pulled my raincoat over my head and waited for the water to hit. It pelted the one spot of exposed back. It blew for what seemed like forever so hard that I couldn't move. When it gave up (a little) I was able to see the lake. It was worth it. At the close end were icebergs. At the far end was a glacier. God it was gorgeous. Mt Cook still eluded us but the site was gorgeous. 

On the way back, on the first suspension bridge we came to, was the scariest part. I heard the wind coming and barely got to the handrail when it hit. It swung the bridge back and forth, leaving heather and I to cling to the railings. Once it past we were able to scurry to the other side. 

But once again, worth it. I'm all out of time and money. for now :)