Is Aoraki always so shy? (NZ Day 4)

16/9/2011  

We woke up late than usual today, considering that we had quite a fair bit of strenuous activities like cycling and lots of walking. Also, our coach that brought us to Queenstown from Lake Tekapo isn't leaving till 11.40am. So today is the day we get to get more sleep as we may not get to sleep late the next few days.

Today was quite a relax and lazy day, traveling from Lake Tekapo to Queenstown, stopping by Mt Cook village for a short lunch break. We wanted to cook something for today's breakfast but shelved away the idea because we still had some remaining bread from the loaf we bought a few
days back. So we finished them for today's breakfast and will have something else other than bread for tomorrow.

The hammock in the garden!

After breakfast, we just hung around the lounge in our accommodation for a while then going to the lakeside to admire the scenery of Lake Tekapo for the last time before boarding the coach bound for Queenstown. Sad to leave the beautiful lake, one that I can look at it for days without getting bored of it, but that means we will be having an adventurous experience waiting for us in Queenstown!

The pathway from the hostel out to the main road.

The benches here seem to all have such a post-card perfect scene before them.

Seeing many stacked stones around, my brother gave a try at stacking his.

He did two stacks, this being the second.

Even the seagulls were there to enjoy the view of Lake Tekapo!

Soon it was about 11.30am and we boarded the Great Sights coach and was greeted by a friendly driver, we departed Lake Tekapo and headed for Queenstown. However, the bus goes in to the village of Mt Cook for a short lunch break before going to Queenstown. The bus went past another lake called Lake Pukaki, also from glacier melt like Tekapo. We also made a brief stop at Peter's Lookout overlooking the mouth of the lake all the way into the valleys of the mountains in the Mt Cook region.

Some snow capped mountains of the Southern Alps seen along the way.

Merino sheeps!

Lake Pukaki along the way to Mt Cook village.

At Peter's Lookout overlooking lake Pukaki.

The beautiful Mount Cook Road along western perimeter of lake Pukaki into Mt Cook village.

Wind blowing water or sand?

After about 3 and a half hours from the time we left Lake Tekapo, we reached the small village of Mt Cook. The weather again wasn't good, just like when I was there previously. Cloudy and windy.

The bus reached the Hermitage Hotel at about 1pm and will leave in an hour and a half time. My brother and I went to the Old Mountaineers Cafe for our lunch. The warm and cozy place really made it a nice place for lunch, with a good view looking at some of the tallest mountains of the Southern Alps.

The walkway from the hotel to the cafe.

A kind of weird precipitation that was like somewhere in between snow and hail.

Sitting just next to the fireplace kept us really warm!

The Hooker valley with the clouds hiding Mt Cook.

Soon after lunch we left Mt Cook village, back onto the road that goes along Lake Pukaki, and on our way to Queenstown. On our 4-hour journey to Queenstown, our driver, who was very informative, gave us lots of information of the surroundings as we drove past them. The views were great too. I fell asleep for a certain duration of the bus journey, maybe because of the heavy lunch!

Back onto the highway further out of Mt Cook village where the weather was much better.

A vehicle driving on a sandy road which left a trail behind it.

I like how the deep blue color of the sky so deep that it became almost black.

We then made a short stop in Omarama. The bus stopped outside a big cafe and I got a hokey pokey ice cream, which is New Zealand's unique ice cream flavor - vanilla with small crumbs of fruits. When my brother and I were having our ice cream outside the cafe, an indonesian guy (from the same coach) came to us and had a short chat. About 15 minutes later, we had to go back to the coach and it left Omarama.

Having a short chat outside the cafe.

After leaving Omarama, we were driving over the Lindis Pass. It is a scenic drive that goes over the pass on its route from the Mackenzie to Queenstown. It's also the highest point among the South Island's highways. The landscapes here were just stunning. Golden mountains with blue skies! If you have the chance to, I will recommend you to have a drive through the Lindis Pass and you won't regret it.

On the Lindis Pass on State Highway 8.

These sheeps seem to be walking like they were in a formation.

Middle Earth?

More sheeps seen on the drive!

Lake Dunston. That's State Highway 8 on the right.

After passing through the scenic Lindis Pass, we reached a fruit farm with a store in Cromwell. I remember being there last year with the trees in the farm all colorful and ripe with fruits. This time they were just barren in their branches.

This was what I saw last year in the same row of trees.

And after harvesting season and through winter.

Coming from Singapore, seasonal changes are not that drastic compared to here where everything changes between each season. The picture just above is the highway road just next to the fruit farm taken last year, and the same location this year below. Kind of nice to see such changes where I don't often see.

We didn't get any fruits from the store, so we just walked around the place and waited in the bus for it to leave for Queenstown. We were just about an hour to Queenstown!

Kawarau River before reaching Queenstown.

We reached Queenstown at around 6.45pm and went straight to check-in at the hostel where we will be staying for three nights for our adventurous stay here. Looked around for dinner and had a walk around the town. Seeing a lively place with some night life, after the past few nights when the streets were half-dead after night fall, makes me feel like I was in another country. I love the small and happening town of Queenstown, albeit slightly over commercialized.

A street busker playing guitar and giving me a stare!