Bob’s Peak to Mount Cook

We woke this morning to crystal clear skies and sunshine. Still chilly, but bright. We packed quickly and headed for the Skyline Cable Car up to Bob's Peak - the steepest in the southern hemisphere, not the world apparently. However, when you are in the cable car ascending to 1,362m almost straight up, who holds what record is immaterial compared to your thoughts on the strength of the cable!

With such bright weather, the view over Queenstown, the lake and the encircling mountains was breathtaking.

We concentrated on the view rather than looking

down. We spent a while on the viewing deck. Sue discovered Lake Wakatipu runs for 80km, or 50 miles, and has an average width of 3 miles. As it is glacial formed, it would have been full of ice, from the lake bottom some 300m down, to about the same height up the mountain sides. Put simply, that's a lot of ice. Sue calculated, 125,597,183,376,724,000.2 Gin and Tonics worth!

We had breakfast in the viewing deck cafe. For a cafe the view was pretty good.

I had a farmer's omelette! I was very curious as to how many farmers they get up on a rocky pinicle at the top of a mountain for breakfast?

We came down out of earths orbit and set off for Cook Mountain. The drive took us past Lake Pukaki at the foot of Mount Cook. I thought Google Maps was exaggerating.

The lake actually is that colour.

Lake Pukaki and Mount Cook

Our camp is at Glentanner, just before you reach Mount Cook Village.

Miss Maui enjoying the early morning sun.

It's a campsite, but also a hub for flights over Mount Cook, Fox Glacier, Franz Josef Glacier and the Tasman Glacier. Having missed our flight at Franz Josef and given the weather now was clear blue skies, we booked a helicopter flight from our campsite for tomorrow. Please, please don't let the weather change.

We have woken up excited. Skies are still clear blue and our flight awaits. I'm not going to say anymore, other than this has been the best experience to date. We will let you judge for yourselves based on the following. Our pilot was Mike.

Mike’s Helicopter

Mr & Mrs M. Man put in another appearance, with cream doughnuts on their ears!

The Tasman Glacier - New Zealands longest

Sue & Trev Selfie

Mount Cook Village

Mikes Helicopter Map

So we arrived back at our campsite after the most wonderful experience yet. This made up for missing out on our Franz Josef Helicopter trip ten-fold. On our return, we walked down to Lake Pukaki. At the shore it was the same old water colour as any old lake. Maybe the New Zealand tourist board have installed aquamarine swimming pool lights in the glacial lakes, but don't have them on all the time?

On that thought, it's time to rest. We have 8.5 hours of driving tomorrow to reach Koukara, above Christchurch on the east coast. Hopefully, the New Zealand tourist board are preparing all the whales and dolphins, because we all plan to go and watch them. See you there!

Love Sue & Trev xx

Good Night