Honeymoon: NZ Christmas 2012 family reunion on Mount John

I forget how noisy backpackers places can be, people were having showers from 6am. Not good for Ali who sleeps very lightly. Breakfast in the room, then on the road. We visited the Mount John observatory in the daytime to take a look at the view over Lake Tekapo. It was quite staggering, especially how quickly the weather changed from full visibility to nothing. We had breakfast in the astro café, then back on the road. As we left the car park, who should we see, Matthew, Andy, Andy’s mum and Elphaba! Little catch up and then onto Lake Alexandrina with the binoculars. We saw grebes, dragon flies but alas no stilts. 

Back on the road, we then visited Lake Pukaki for lunch, much bigger than Lake Tekapo but just as bright. We had lunch at the Mount Cook look out point but alas, it was covered in rain. We did see a lot of Thai tourists and watched them take pictures of each other, all 3 bus loads of them. Onto Mount Cook in the rain and checked into The Hermitage. 

The Hermitage and Mount Cook reminds me of Everest base camp, but with a road to get there, lots of cars, houses…so maybe not base camp. But the mixture of nationalities and display of outdoor clothing walking around, reminds me of base camp. Sadly, the glacier tour was cancelled due to bad weather, so we decided to take a look around the Edmund Hilary alpine centre instead. It was fascinating and surprisingly free. I loved reading about Edmund, his ascent of Everest and crossing Antarctica. The exhibition also includes information on Mount Cook, including the first lady to climb it, who was gay it transpired. 

Dinner looking at Mount Cook, or Mount Cook behind cloud would be more appropriate. Been a long day again, but looking forward to tomorrow, just gotta hope the weather clears for us to see Mount Cook it all its splendour.