Aoraki - Mount Cook
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 10 Feb 2013 12:30
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A daytrip from Christchurch took us to the eastern
side of the Southern Alps, an area which is really quite beautiful. Not as
spectacular as the Swiss Alps perhaps, but much less inhabited. There is a lot
of really wild high country here, with no roads, no mountain restaurants and no
chairlifts or cablecars.
We headed for Aoraki/Mount Cook, at 3754m the
highest point in NZ. Here is a classic view of Mt Cook in the distance seen over
the beautiful blue waters of Lake Tekapo- which really is exactly the
colour depicted:
 Approaching Mt Cook up the Hooker Valley.
Suspension bridges are called swing bridges in NZ, because they do.
Hooker Valley to the right, and the Mueller Valley
to the left. Both have live glaciers, although they're in rapid retreat at
present.
 Looking back down the astoundingly flat valley
floor towards Lake Pukaki:
 And up to the Hooker Glacier with Mt Cook in the
background. The snout of the glacier is visible at the end of the lake. Note the
bare valley sides of morainic materialindicating a glacier in rapid
retreat:
 And finally, a team photo with Mt Sefton 3151m on
the left skyline and the remains of the Mueller Glacier in the middle distance.
100 years ago you could walk directly onto the ice from where I took this
picture.
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