Mountains & Pushbike riders

It was a brisk morning this morning, an easterly wind freezing me to the bone as I braved the chill for a bacon & egg breaky. Brekky was delish and it wasn't long before we said our goodbyes to the beautiful Lake Pukaki and headed back to Twizel for a warm coffee, passing 2 push bike riders heading the other way. The Temperature was -2 degrees, at 10am. Cold.

Hudsy put us all to shame, winning the warmest dressed prize with his full body snowsuit. The rest of us, we froze. From Twizel we headed north again, this time taking the turn off for Mount Cook, once again passing our push bike friends heading in the same direction. A beautiful 40 minute drive up the opposite side of Lake Pukaki saw us to the Mount Cook Village. It was beautiful here, mounds of snow lining the road and towering, snow cover mountains all around us. We parked the vans and the kettle was on in an instant. Coffee, tea, and chocolate refuelled our cold bodies once again to brave the elements. We made a plan to hit up one of the many walking trails around the Mount Cook region. We stepped outside the warm vans, dressed to the nines in our huge jackets, only to be greeting by the beautiful warm sun. We can't keep up with the weather but man it's still delightful.

We set out along a still icy track that lead to one of the lakes at the base of Mount Cook, Mueller Lake. Mueller Lake was previously a 13 km glacier, but today it's lake feeds down into Lake Pukaki through a beautiful blue river littered with large grey boulders, a picturesque suspension bridge spanning it's banks. It was truly the spectacle of the day. We thought we'd lost James at one point, calling out his name only for him to pop up from a bush he'd been crouching in, trying to "get the right angle". His techniques are paying off though cause he's getting some amazing shots of this place. We spent several hours here, taking photos amongst the incredible terrain, and simply just exploring and admiring this place. Perhaps to long as we left our 2.5hr planned drive down to Albert Town slighty too late.

The drive south to Albert town took us through some amazing scenery. We headed back down the side of Lake Pukaki, once again passing our push bike riding buddies, who still had a long way to go until they reached Mount Cook (hopefully they made it!). We pit stopped at a small farming town called Omarama, refueled the vans and restocked the fridges before continuing South. We passed through Lindis Pass (not Linda's Pass), a beautiful country road sweeping between lush green mountains. Unfortunately the sun was almost gone at this point and we missed some pretty amazing opportunities, but none the less it was some stunning country side.

We made it to our campsite in Albert Town in the dark, hopefully the morning will bring some more stunning scenery, but for now it was a delicious, late night roast dinner at the Lynches and a semi early night.

Tomorrow is a catch-up morning and exploration of Wanaka.

Asher ☺️Read more