Mount Cook

We nearly bypassed Mt Cook, but luckily some locals changed our minds – it was beautiful. We arrived to low cloud cover, enough to obsecure the mountain tops. Unusually, it created a really strange phenomenon; the vibrant cyan/blue colours of Lake Tekapo were being reflected by the clouds. It was stunning.

Of all the great places we parked our campervan over the last five weeks, the campsite at the foot of the mountains here took the medal, not for facilities, but location. The snow-capped mountains seemed to wrap around us and we were only a kilometre from the start of a glacier! In the morning we walked to see the terminal face, then we walked to another where clumps of ice were floating in the lake in the foreground.

We took a dusk star gazing tour near the deliberately dimly lit town of Tekapo. Upon the hill of Mt John, we used the University of Canterbury’s equipment to observe clear views of Jupiter, Venus, a “new star cluster” and an old star believed to be around 2.5 billion years old, probably the oldest thing we’ve seen! We also familiarised ourselves with the southern hemisphere constellations, many of which are different to the north, including the southern cross, and an upside down Orion!

On our way to a glacier

Glacier, lake and mini-icebergs

Stunning mountain views

Suspension bridge

Perfect reflections

Photographer Hyde at work

Mt John observatory

Sophie stargazing