New Zealand - Mount Cook and Clay Cliffs

The weather was supposed to be clearing up for the 27th so we thought we'd make the drive to Mount Cook. Mount Cook is the highest peak in New Zealand at 12,316 feet and, while we weren't going to climb it (heaven forbid!), we could at least take some close-ups of the monster. We took Highway 8 over the what's-its-name pass (there are a lot of them) and then made the turn toward Mount Cook. This road goes along Lake Pukaki for a very long way until it turns and runs along the massive moraine area. Lake Pukaki is beautiful, a stunning shade of aquamarine, and, by employing my keen sense of deduction, clearly quite cold. The pictures definitely don't do it justice.

As we got closer to Mount Cook Village we noticed that it wasn't clearing up at all. It was, in fact, starting to snow. Oh well, at least we weren't washed out again. I'm not too sure how being snowed out is any better, though. We decided to enjoy some fine beverages at the cafe and admire the view of an obscured Mount Cook. I took a picture of it, but you have to use your imagination (or find one on the internet that doesn't have 12km of snowfall between you and it).

The only problem was, when I got back home and had access to the internet, I found out that I was not even aimed in the direction of Mount Cook when I snapped the shot. It was more like Mount Sefton. Ooops! No matter, we're using our imagination anyway so it's all good.

It was snowing noticeably more by the time we left the cafe. Snow is a funny thing. We could have taken the road to Hooker Lake which is right at the end of one of the glaciers coming off Mount Cook so I could have taken an even better white-out shot of Mount Cook. But, the nagging plausibility of not getting out of there unleashed its magnetism on us and we were inexorably pulled towards the road back.

Lake Pukaki was still beautiful driving by it in the other direction. I'll definitely give New Zealand credit for an inordinately large number of massive and scenic lakes.

We stopped at the Clay Cliffs on the way back. The entry fee to the Clay Cliffs is $5 since they're on private property and it's completely on the honour system. You're just supposed to stop at the iStore and pay which is exactly what we did.

The Clay Cliffs are comprised of some cool rock formations, but we didn't contemplate them too terribly long as it was darn nippy out there with some wind thrown in as an added bonus. I was too busy snapping pictures to let the coldness get to me so I was the last one back to the car. On the way back to the car I had a look at the view away from the cliffs. It reminded me strongly of Scotland and the climate's about right, too.

Things didn't go quite the way we planned, but it was still another very picturesque day.