Saturday 15 June 2013

Experiencing the Aoraki / Mountain Cook National Park (Day 10)


Together with Yen, we came to one of the sites where the movie 'Lord of The Rings' took place. There’re not many choices of budget accommodation and there’s no any BBH hostel in Mountain Cook, so we stayed in the only one YHA hostel.


YHA hostel with mountains backdrop

It was clean and warm. In fact, we didn't book in advance but we're lucky that there're vacancies for both of us when we arrived after sunset. Or else, we had to be freezing in the car, just like my bottle. See, I forgot to bring it along from the car and the next morning it became frozen same as the car.




After checked out from the hostel, I drove through the Mt Cook and surroundings. We in person experienced the spectacular majesty of the highest snow-capped mountains of New Zealand as shown in the movie.



Frozen leaves on the ground

A layer of ice created and covered the road



At Mt. Cook, it’s too cold for my body and my palms turned red even I wore gloves. I really couldn't afford to accompany my friend completed the Hooker Valley Track up to 4 hour return on the cold late autumn; despite I knew that the journey would be great if we really could make it. So sorry...my dear friend… However, we did explore around Alpine Memorial, Hooker Valley, Blue Lake and the glaciers.

Alpine Memorial to remember those who perished on Mt Cook

Hooker Valley

Blue Lake(but the lake is obviously green, why not Green Lake?)