Leaving Twizel

We left Twizel this morning, and headed to Aoraki Mt Cook - a place Farmerboy or myself has ever been to.

It was a cloudy day - unfortunately we didn't have the perfect photographic conditions that we had yesterday.

Stopping at Lake Pukaki, I took some photos of Aoraki Mt Cook. It looked beautiful claded in snow. Carrying on into the Mt Cook township, we stopped at The Hermitage and had morning tea - which was delicious! On the terrace of The Hermitage, is a beautiful big sculpture of Sir Edmund Hilary, to celebrate 50 years since he had reached the summit of the Mountain. I had seen this on TV, but it was amazing to see it in person.

Farmerboy and son T decided that it would be fantastic idea to go around to the Tasman glacier, and do the 15 minute walk to the base of the glacier. I went along with them - but just about died along the way. The walk went straight up the side of a mountain and while it was quite an achievement to get to top of the mountain, I was absolutely exhausted when I got there. I was pleased to make the excuse to sit and take some photos so I could get have a rest. I'm totally unfit, something I'm going to have to work on.

At the base of the glacier, we could see the actual Tasman Glacier, and the beautiful lake that the glacier melts into, but best of all, icebergs that had broken off the glacier and were floating in the lake. It was out of this world! I'm pleased to say the trip back down to the car park wasn't as bad at the walk up the mountain.

Leaving Mt Cook and getting back onto the State Highway, I spotted this beautiful scenery. We stopped, got out of the car to get today's photo.

We arrived at Lake Tekapo for a late lunch. It had started to rain by this stage, but it wasn't too cold.

Travelling through Fairlie to Geraldine, we stopped at Geraldine and had a look around. My mum and dad lived here for a few years in the mid 1990's, so it was great to have a look around and see how much it had grown since I was here last.

Our intentions were to get to Methven tonight, but along the way we came across a road closure and detour, which meant we had no option but to head to Ashburton for the night.

Tomorrow we head home and back to reality.