Mount Aoraki

I escaped the cold Pacific gray of Dunedin on a sunny sojourn to the mountains this weekend. Joining up with some other travelers, three French/Chilean girls, we got a rent a dent and road tripped it up to Mount Aoraki, the highest peak in Aotearoa at 3,754 metres (12,316 ft).

We trekked out to the edge of the glaciers, hopscotching over boulders on a blue-bird sunny day. It was "awe-inspring" in the truest sense of that word. Everything up in the high country was glacier carved and reminded me of the Big Sky of Montana. Huge valleys full of cattle and sheep ranches, braided rivers full of trout, and big snowy mountains. Food for the soul after all the morose, rainy weather on the coast.

Sun-kissed on cloud-nine we soaked in every minute of the day. We marveled at the crisp colors of the strange alpine plants and tussock grasses, listened to the distant sounds of avalanches, and took far too many pictures unable to resist the jaw dropping scenery. This was one of my favorites...