Me and Mikael (from Otekaieke - one of the earlier farms I've been wwoofing at) planned to go up to the Mueller Hut this weekend, and were going to get to the bottom of it on Friday night so as to be able to bag a place in the Mueller Hut (something like 1800m up I think) , which is limited to 28 bunks or so. But the weather on Friday looked pretty poor, and the weather forecast even worse, so we decided to not bust a gut on Friday and just see what happened on Saturday.
And to my great suprise and glee the weather on Saturday morning was fantasticly perfect, so I pegged it from Wanaka, picked up Mikael at Omarama, and drove onto the base of Mt Cook where, unfortunatetly, we found that the hut was full already. Boo hoo. But it is not a long walk - jsut steep - so easy to do in one day.
This is me and my knobbly knees surrounded by the sound of crashing snow and hot sun - happy to be at the top and within site of the Hut.
This is part of the magnificent view from the Mueller Hut where we stopped to make angels in the snow. Racing clouds curling over the peaks.
And some very friendly Kea who led the way back down again as dusk began to pull shadows up the valley sides.
Again again the foredcast lies. Sunday morning was another beautiful morning, so we went to see the biggest Glacier in NZ - it's harder to see than the one from Mueller Hut because it is covered in alot of rubble (arhh I'm sure it has a technical name - not Moraine? - my GCSE Geography is beginning to fail me...). It is also getting smaller incredibly quickly which is what all this water - or "slump" is about. The island in the bottom right corner is actually a muddy wee iceberg cruising. Apparently the glacier is receding by 0.5% a year, which is incredible.
And then a swim in a turquoise coloured lake (I promise it is turquiose - those damned cameras are failing me again in painting a true picture)
1 comment:
Cool Roz!!
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