Today we have a fairly long drive from
Christchurch to Mt. Cook. Google had planned a route that headed back
toward the demolished inner city. I took issue with that and put us
on a simpler route out of town. Only one time did William pause at an
intersection and say “Which way do I go?” I answered with all the
confidence I could muster “Right.” Success.
We drive between the same hedgerows we
could see dividing the fields from the air. The hedgerows are 5-20
feet wide and are great refuges for small animals and great
windbreaks. When the fields need new hedgerows they replant trees or
bushes.
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| Farm fields behind these hedgerows |
When we can see fields we see lots of
beets or beetroot as they say here. William is going to have to
learn to like beets better than he does. He pulled the slices of
beet off of his steak sandwich the other day in disgust and gave them
to me. Good thing I like beets.
We also see lots of corn, hay, alfalfa,
pasture land full of cows, sheep, hogs! and alpaca. As we get into
the foothills we see lots of patchcut forests.
We lunched by the side of Lake Pukaki.
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| Mt. Cook is in the distance |
We drive up to the Hermitage Hotel as
the Visitor Center is next to it. Very fancy hotel with mountain
views. Rooms start at only $350.
We talk about doing an hour hike. It
looks like the start is near our rooms, so we go to check in first.
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| GRL in front of our room |
As we set out William goes to get
specific directions to the trailhead and is talked into a different
hike. I think if we had actually done all of this hike it would have
been 4 hours instead of the 2 hours we spent hiking over rocks and
coarse gravel. There were three suspension bridges. These were very
strong bridges but they still make me nervous. I went over the first
one and almost to the second. William went over 2 and decided he had
gone far enough.
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| above the first lake, Lake Mueller, and bridge |
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| The first bridge |
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| The second bridge |
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| Mt Cook with Mt Tasman behind |
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| Resting near the end |
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| I took this further away and magnified |
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| Silly duck resting at the edge of the parking lot. |
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