Mt. Cook Weekend Hike







Make sure your speakers are not turned all the way up!!


After a long week at work, Blaine and I were eager to get out of town for the weekend. Friday afternoon we packed our tent and sleeping bags and took off! 3 hours later we arrived at Lake Tekapo, after driving through rolling green pastures with grazing sheep. We set up our tent under the starry sky. Sometime in the middle of the night the wind began to roar, and this continued throughout the rest of our trip. We stopped for breakfast at Doughboy Cafe for coffee and muffins, while we watched a few rally car drivers finish up a leg of the race. We drove an hour more past a stunning turquoise lake and towards the snow-capped mountains. The road actually dead-ends into Mt. Cook National Park. We gathered lunch items (sardines and tuna with crackers), filtered some water for the hike and headed off for the Hooker Valley trail. Facing into the 60-100 km/h wind that blew through the valley was quite a challenge. We crossed 2 swinging bridges, passed Mueller Lake, met a lot of American hikers, saw an avalanche (which BT spotted high up on the moutainside) and finally made it to Hooker Lake. We had to sit behind a large boulder to eat our lunch just to be able to hear each other speak. It was amazing to see the rain clouds spill over the mountains at the end of the valley, but luckily we were able to make it close to the end of the trail back to the car before it started to rain heavily. We decided with the bad weather on the way we would head back to Christchurch so that we would have all of Sunday to relax and go to church.

Side note: My mom got a plane ticket to come see us the day after Christmas and stay through the New Year! I am soooo excited. Our first visitor!