Mt. Cook/Aoraki

This (pic 2), is what we saw for the most part of our 6 months anniversary hike here at Mt. Cook - or Aoraki in Maori. What you can't see in the background is all 3790m of it. But we did have a lucky window of about 10 minutes with pretty good views once we reached its crater lake which had some icebergs in it! And we definitely had better conditions overall than most people that started the trip after us.

Mt. Cook is actually covered in clouds 40% of the time which makes sense given that it is only 44km from the coast.

The 8 lakes in this region carved out by the glaciers in the most recent ice age with their 9 dams and power plants actually provide 30% of New Zealands energy which is quite impressive. This certainly helps shaping a nuclear free energy system as New Zealands'. We actually saw only one tower of a power plant somewhere close to Auckland, we think. This surely contributes to the image of pristine landscapes you get when travelling this country.Read more