When I pulled up the blinds, all the youngsters were standing out on the big rock, huddled in blankets and sleeping bags, watching the sun hit on the mountains across Lake Pukaki, and several folks had their cameras out.
Mt Cook is nowhere to be seen at present. There was a sliver of low cloud hanging above the lake, across the Ben Ohau range, and then a touch of golden light on the opposite shore, very fine.
Due to the temperature we had breakfast and were off pretty sharpish. We drove around the southern end of Lake Pukaki and took the Mt Cook road (Doug and Lorraine lived here for two and a half years when the lake was dammed and raised. Doug was managing the engineering of the new road higher up the hillside, their house is now under water - a very good road it is too!) along the western side of the lake up to Mt Cook Village.
En route we passed 'Dead Horse Creek' and 'Fred's Creek' but didn't see either namesake. The colours of the grassland (burnt yellow ochre) and the green scrub against the turquoise of Lake Pukaki were gorgeous and soon the peaks came in to view; huge, rugged, rocky mountains with glaciers clinging to the tallest - magnificent! Once the Lake had been left behind we followed the edge of the outwash plains, in themselves vast, till we reached Mt Cook Village.
The Visitors' Centre is a well designed building on the inside, with windows looking out on to the breathtaking scenery, including a huge one which looked right up the valley towards Mt Cook.
We found a leaflet of walks (and the inevitable postcards and fridge magnet!) and retired to the Old Mountaineers' Cafe to have a cuppa and a muffin (lemon and poppyseed warmed up) and to decide which walk(s) to do. We chose the Hooker Valley Track which was the longest (and took us nearest to Mt Cook without needing mountaineering gear!)
The views from the very well maintained track were tremendous; glacial lakes and rivers; towering peaks many snowcapped; huge scree slopes; glaciers clinging to slopes and, once we had reached the valley 'corner', ever present views of Mt Cook itself.
There were lots of folks doing the walk and many hellos and good mornings. Early on the track we passed the Memorial to climbers who had lost their lives in the mountains. There were several memorial books in the Visitors Centre with photos and words about those who had lost their lives in falls, avalanches and from falling rocks. It was sobering reading and reminded us how dangerous these mountains can be, no matter how experienced you might be. We also passed the rock which features in a famous photo of the first woman climber to successfully climb Mt Cook, Emmeline Freda du Faur. I tried to emulate Freda's pose but was lacking the specially designed skirt, lace blouse, leggings and neck brooch!
We crossed three bouncy suspension bridges on the Hooker Track which added to the enjoyment and gave us closer looks at the glacial rivers.
You do need a good day to walk the Hooker Track to be rewarded with the superb views.
At the end of the track, we reached the glacial lake and joined the many folks enjoying the views and sunshine, and eating their lunches before retracing their steps to Mt Cook Village.
Once back at Oscar the Van we drove back down Doug's Road with views back to Lake Pukaki and across to where we had camped last night. We then moved on to Twizel for a very late lunch at the Hydro Cafe. The young guy behind the counter asked us where we had been and what we had been doing in previous days. He had not heard of Sawcut Gorge so I gave him the co-ordinates as he was keen to see it for himself.
En route from Twizel we spotted the Clay Cliffs at Omarama from the roadside and were able to take photos from a distance. There is a side road which takes you right up to the Cliffs but it would have added serious time to our journey so we were glad to be able to get a decent view of them from the main road.
We then drove through the high plains for several miles before reaching Lindis Pass with different terrain once again. These looked like hills with cloth stretched over ribs, covered in close cut grass with small scrubby bushes.
Once through the Pass we descended and descended for a long time till we reached Tarras. A few kilometres beyond Tarras we turned left up a long gravel track which passed by acres of vines belonging to the Mud House Estate (I have yet to see any of their Pinot Gris on the supermarket shelves!) and then up a scary incline which Oscar struggled with! We were supposed to be wild camping in the carpark for a ruined gold mining settlement but we couldn't find the camping area and the track was cutting up worse. A Frenchman was coming down in his car and told us it was some distance further on so we decided to reverse (!), turn around and drop back down to the other NZFrenzy suggested campsite, here in the trees on the site of the old schools which served the goldminers' families up to 1928 - the Bendigo Schoolhouse. So here we are, wild camping once again before heading for four days in Queenstown - serious civilisation!
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