To Cook or not to cook?

Wednesday 10th. Woke up to bright sunshine and, joy, oh joy, omelette and bacon for breakfast. Sorry, it's just that all our B&B breakfasts have, so far, only been cereals and toast. Eggs and bacon is a real treat. 

Today we're going to look at Mount Cook. This will involve a 2 hour journey there and 2 hours back. We set off reasonably early for us and kept up a steady 100 kph for much of the way. This is just above 60 mph and everyone keeps to the limit. 

Once again we are overwhelmed by the vastness of this country. The roads run straight for miles, the bends are gentle and the towns and speed limits are few and far between. The scenery unfolds in front of you as if you were in a cinema watching it all on the big screen. The only difference is that in the cinema it's OK if I go to sleep while the film's running! 

We stopped several times on the journey to take photos. At each stop we were joined by quite a few Chinese tourists. They are all on holiday celebrating the Chinese New Year. 

At Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd that stands in a beautiful position at the side of the lake. We managed to visit in between tourists and sit for a moment in peace and quiet. After that, the lady on duty for the day kept reminding visitors that it was a place of prayer and that photos should not be taken. Luckily she hadn't seen us clicking away quietly! 

The window behind the altar has a spectacular view over the lake. 

We then drove 55 km along the side of Lake Pukaki. This lake is a distinctive blue colour which is caused by glacial flour, the extremely finely ground rock particles from the glacier that feeds into it. 

We stopped at Mount Cook Village and spent time looking at the informative information centre. 

We then went for lunch (overpriced) after which we set off on a 2 hour ramble up to Kea Point and back. 

The views were stunning. 

When we got to the Point, one of the park rangers was sitting there waiting for everyone to move on so that he could repair the viewing platform. 

Another ranger was raking away some weeds from beside the path. We commented on the size of the garden he had to look after. But, what a place to work. 

Just as we decided to set off back down the path, a coach load - it seemed like a coach load - of - yes, you've got it - Chinese tourists came chattering up towards us. I've really got nothing against Chinese tourists, honestly, but I'm glad we managed our visit before they all turned up.  

The temperature had, by now, risen to 27 deg. We were starting to cook. Back into the car, on with the air conditioning and off we went, back to Lake Tekapo. Here we sat in the late afternoon sun - well, we really sat in the shade - and enjoyed a pleasant end to the day. 

Managed to capture one of the local birds for Brian to identify for us!