4 hours drive from Queenstown to Mount Cook and stopped to take another 'team' photo with Lake Pukaki as a back drop. The colour of this lake is unbelievable. Sue asked us what we wanted to do on arrival in Mount Cook - walks? (short/long) but I decided to take the easy option - Scenic flight. It was a last minute decision again and we arrived at 1 and I had to be ready to go by 2 but it was the flight of my life!!
I was so lucky too as No flights had gone for the last 3 days because of poor weather conditions. We took off in a ski plane with a couple called Sarah and Gareth from London.
We flew over the river bed where we could see glaciers in the water and as we climbed it looked as if we were heading directly at the mountain face but the views were breath-taking, awesome, magnificent and any other words I can find!.
After 2 attempts the pilor landed the plane on the Tasman glacier which is the longest glacier in NZ. The snow was untouched except for the tracks of our plane landing. The still of the mountains surrounding us was eerie as you heard a single crack of the ice on a mountain in the distance. I'm sure I will never experience anything so wonderful again - we were surrounded by snow and ice and yet it wasn't cold and the reflection on the snow from the sun can easily burn you.
We stayed 15 - 20 minutes on the glacier and threw snowballs, made snow angels and took photos. We took off again and flew right up close to Mount Cook and then back to the airfield.
A perfect end to this magnificent trip.
Had a nice cuppa when I got back and then took a slow walk up to the Edmund HIlary Alpine centre where I watched a video of his climb of Everest which took me back to my time in Nepal and the Everest flight.
Nice stroll back to the YHA in the warm sunshine and then I sat on a bench outside the YHA and just took in all of these awesome view - snow capped mountains, hills and the quiet of the valley is lovely - all you can hear is the call of the birds and an odd car or 2 in the distance. This spot is idyllic.
Bye for now
Love Sue. xx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment