Traveling Southland, Queenstown and Mt. Cook

It has been awhile since you have heard from us. A month thereabout. This either means we have not been doing much. Or we have been too busy to sit down and write. Well this has been both. First we had a quiet house sit in Orepuki with three miniature Schnauzers that we already knew and loved. Remembering our last visit here

We love Orepuki too. The far south of New Zealand does not get its due; it is really an unspoiled and undiscovered gem of New Zealand. We will come here again. There is a 3-day hike we want to do called the Humpback Ridge Track. It is closed for the season now, so it will need to be another trip. Other day hikes proved challenging and scenic. More pristine, lonely beaches, sunsets and rainforest bush. 

After the house sit we turned into tourists again. First to Queenstown, the most touristy town of all New Zealand. This is our third visit to Queenstown, to view our last postcard. We ate expensive meals, walked around touristy shops. And hiked. We hiked almost every day. Everyone thinks the south is cold. Queenstown was markedly colder than the south. It is still Fall here, but snowfields are open. It snowed down to about 200 meters while we were there. Still Fall color, but with a backdrop of snow on the mountains – Gorgeous.

Next tourist stop was Mt Cook. Mt Cook is New Zealand’s highest mountain. To be clear, we went to Mt. Cook Village which is still a long way from Mt Cook. There are no roads that go any closer. On a clear day, which is only about half the time, you can see this majestic mountain. This is not our first time here, but our third. Click for our last postcard from Mt. Cook

Here is where Sir Edmund Hillary practiced for his climb of Mt Everest. Who knew he was a kiwi? We were lucky with nice weather and got a view of Mt Cook every day. But not as good of a view as when we took a helicopter up there.

It landed and I got out, and fell up to my waist in fresh snow. The helicopter made it seem a lot more compact; it landed softly on the powder and did not sink a bit. The helicopter company ferries skiers up to this spot and they ski down on top of glaciers for the longest ski run in the world.  

Other hardy souls hike/climb; there were a couple huts we buzzed where trampers can get warm and spend the night. This was my first experience in a helicopter; it stands up to the hype. Helicopters and small planes are hopping all over New Zealand all the time. Folks take them to get to remote hunting spots, and even to pick up trampers after a one way, multi-day hike

A second tourist activity in Mt. Cook Village was a boat trip from one end of a glacial lake to the other end (the glacier end). The glacier was 200 meters higher then the water level, and 400 meters below the water. It is impossible to get close enough to really appreciate its size; all relativity is lost with all the rest of the grandeur around.

The boat could not get too close to the glacier in case of a calving iceberg; that could create a tsunami that would take out the boat. It still would, no matter how close we were, but I did not question the wisdom. We also got up close to icebergs and peered into the crystal. There were centuries old air bubbles and a lot of rocks.

While at Mt Cook Village we saw three named glaciers: Muller, Tasman and Hooker which all terminate into lakes. From the helicopter we could see Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers. These two are on the west side of the mountain and fall toward the sea, a rarity. Most of these views were reached by hikes, some easy, some not.

One included 2000 stairs. There are a couple hikes to huts that would be epic. Hardy people were doing these, but it requires an ice axe and crampons and the skills to go with it. As with all activities in New Zealand, no one stops you from making dumb moves, but you. These were dangerous hikes above our skill level, even in Summer they could be challenging. 

We are heading to a house sit now. Our practice of a couple weeks of full on tourist activities, followed by stretches of rest via house sitting is really working for us. Unexpectedly we noticed two friends from the North Island vacationing in the South and not far from us. We organized a meet up and were reunited with the Airbnb hosts that took such good care of us during the lockdown. Happy reunion.