East Ridge

We got a call from reception at about 8.20 to say our 4wd tour at 9am had been cancelled. Unsurprising given the amount of rain that we had heard falling during the night and was still tipping down at that point. This gave us a more leisurely start to the day and we watched the rain continue to fall and some periodic flashes of lightning with rumbles of thunder. The mountains around us were virtually invisible through the clouds and rain.

We headed up (in the car!) to the visitor centre at 10 and had a look around the museum there. The downstairs was the most interesting, with an old mountain hut, a big map of the area with buttons that lit up various locations and information on mountain rescues, including oen where two guides from the Hermitage had been trapped at the top of Mount Cook by a storm which had lasted for about 2 weeks. They sheltered in a crevasse and had a food drop after a few days and were finally rescued only after one rescue helicopter had rolled over in the stormy weather on the mountain. The guys ended up losing their legs below the knee to frostbite, but went back to climb the mountain again with prosthetic legs and one guy climbed Everest that way (we saw a picture of his black frostbitten feet in the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre).

Pitstop for bacon sandwiches and drinks in the Old Mountaineers; Hut Cafe, then we went into the Hermitage Hotel and into the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre. This was built in 2007 after Sam and I last visited. It had various info and memorabilia about Sir Edmund Hillary and other climbers (as mentioned earlier)as well as the Hotel and the Mount Cook village region in general.

The main attraction was the cinema/planetarium which showed short films (typically 20 minutes or so) throughout the day. We first saw the midday film which was the Magic of Mount Cook in 3D. It started with a cartoon showing how New Zealand and the mountains were formed according to Maori legend (4 brothers in a canoe hit a rock and the canoe became the land and the brothers sheltering on top became the mountains). The rest of the film was 3D shots swooping over the mountains.

The second film we watched was on the planetarium screen (a large dome screen that was moved over the top of the seats It was called Tyco to the Moon and was about a cartoon dog who's kennel turned into a rocket and took him to the moon. The kids loved it and the planetarium dome screen effect worked very well.

We then watched a third half hour long film about Black Holes which was interesting and explained quite a lot of the science behind black hole theory in relative simple terms, though Ed declared he did not understand a word of it!

Lunch in the cafe (Butter Chicken pies for ed and I) then we drove back to the apartment to chill out and see if the weather would get better (it was still pouring and was sleety now).

Weather didn't improve, but Ed and I went back to watch the 5pm film on Primeval New Zealand about the history of some of the animals. NZ originally had only 1 mammal, a bat, and was populated mainly by birds (and lizards, molluscs, insects). Evidence suggested that many of the birds including the Kiwi came originally from Australia when they had wings to fly but then rapidly evolved to suit the NZ environment. We sensed from the commentary that this was not a pleasant thought to the New Zealand folks given their rivalry with Oz! The film was 45 minutes, but very interesting and Ed was pleased he had come to see it. It had finally fined up and we could see a bit more of the mountains (though not Mount Cook), but no time to do anything as it was getting dark.

So we headed back to the motel to cook the limited ready meals we had bought earlier. Ed and I had a risotto which was tasty but we managed to burn a layer to the bottom of the pan, tough to get off. Tash's macaroni cheese was a disaster and she ended up eating cereal.Read more