Aoraki...a land of ice and glaciers

"Good on you" if you are still reading my blog!  January 3, we headed northeast towards Mount Cook, aka Aoraki, spending the night in the secluded village, lucky to grab one of the few lodging accommodations available at the Aoraki Court Motel.  Book early!  Our room was actually a new and a nicely appointed triple, with a small kitchenette, available after 2 pm only, so we quickly changed our clothing and started our first tramp.  The Hooker Valley Track, around 3 hours round trip, passed over the Hooker River 3 times over long suspension swing bridges, before ending at the glacial lake  at the base of the Hooker Glacier coming off Mount Cook.  The entire tramp was enjoyed in a light rain and all the mountains were shrouded in mist and although it was cool outside, we were hot from the challenge of  a relatively easy hike and those plastic raincoat insulators. We never saw the top of Mount Cook, but had wonderful views of the Mueller Glacier to our left, including a small avalanche.  The river is a roaring milky white and the milky white lake had a number of icebergs floating in it.   When we returned to our room, we picniced on our usual salami cheese sandwiches and stayed in for the cold, wet, overcast night because we would have never seen the sunset on Mount Cook.  If you can stay up and it's a clear night, the reflection off Cook is amazing (we saw pictures someone had taken the night before from the Kea Trail at about 9-10 pm).  In the morning after eating our homemade breakfast we had to bring in because there is limited food in the Village, we decided to try the Red Tarns Track opposite the Hooker Valley Track.  A 2-3 hour return, it was a steep 1200+ step+incline ascent to the summit to view 2 small red leaf covered lakes, with amazing views over the town and towards the Hooker Valley Trail.  Again, we hiked in a misty light rain, with the mountains surrounding us shrouded in clouds, with a great view of the opposite side of the Mueller glacier.  Before leaving the area, we took a side trip down the Tasman Valley with its milky white roaring river, greenish mountains rising from the valley floor, socked in with mist and clouds and an occasional waterfall.  This area really looked like LOR country, but we decided not to take the short hike to the glacial lake at the end of the Tasman Glacier.  (It also has icebergs floating in it and it is under an hour return).  The rainy ride back to the main highway along a gorgeous light bluish turquoise lake was amazing (we didn't get a speeding ticket on the way out for going a whopping 6 mph over the posted speed limit like we did on the way in which sort of messed up our enjoyment of views of the lake coming in LOL...beware!  On holidays there is only a 4km discrepancy allowed by the police which is 1mph over the speed limit!  You have to drive just below the speed limit or you get a $60NZ ticket...ouch!).  On our drive we also saw neighboring Lake Tekapo (like peekaboo), with its famous historic church where we had a quick lunch and replenished our gas for our drive in heavy rain and freezing temperatures through the center of the South Island to Christchurch for the night.  Didn't plan on the long drive, but the weather was so bad, there wasn't much else to do except drive all the way to Christchurch.  Not much to say about Christchurch except don't visit here!  The city is still undergoing massive restoration after a destructive earthquake in 2011, the city plan is disorganized and unattractive and they totally missed the opportunity to develop one of the most beautiful harbors I have ever seen by building industrial buildings all along the entire harbor, totally destroying the view and property values.  What a loss! We luckily found an inexpensive triple room near the central park, located the nearby gas station and grocery closest to the highway so we can stock up for supplies tomorrow before we head out to the west coast via Arthur's Pass.