We are now on journey around the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand – as the country is now known (the addition of Aotearoa reflecting its Maori heritage).  We joined a New Zealand trails group on a fixed itinerary, which started in Queenstown and today took us to from Wanaka to Aoraki/Mount Cook, a village at the foot of the extensive Aoraki/Mount Cook range of mountains, the highest part of the Southern Alps.  Aoraki is the Maori name for Mount Cook, the highest mountain in Aotearoa New Zealand.  As we were driven up Lake Pukaki (which is the lake of the Tasmin River), the weather started got progressively worse.  High winds and driving rain greeted us as we came into the mountain village that serves as a base for walkers, climbers and sightseers in these amazing mountains. 

We dashed out of the rain to visit the DOC (Department of Conservation) visitors centre.  It contained a vast amount of fascinating material about the formation of the mountains, the flora and fauna and a history of first and subsequent ascents.  These are seriously challenging alpine mountains and Mount Cook was only conquered in 1894.  The first attempt to climb Aoraki/Mount Cook was made in 1882 by an Irishman, Rev W.S. Green, and two Swiss guides. Although his party climbed to within 20 metres of the top, it was not until Christmas Day in 1894 that the summit was reached, by three New Zealanders: Tom Fyfe, Jack Clarke and George Graham.   They had been spurred into action by news that the American climber Edward Fitzgerald and the famous Swiss/Italian guide Matthias Zurbriggen were on their way to New Zealand. The foreigners arrived in the country in late December and were less than pleased to discover that they had come all that way only to be thwarted in their aim of climbing Mount Cook for the first time. 

We were not intending to do anything that stretching and were only due to climb up to the Muller Ridge via Sealy Tarns but no one in their right mind would attempt the walk voluntarily in such weather.  So we settled for a half hour walk up to Kea Point, where we were blown away by the view which was supposed to be expansive views of the Footstool, the Hooker Valley, the Mueller Glacier Lake and Moraine, Mount Sefton, and Aoraki/Mount Cook.  In fact we saw the lake and a bit of the glacier but the rest was in cloud.  But we were blown away by the wind and horizontal rain.

Then back to the hotel for an hour to play cards whilst we waited for our room to be ready, and watched the rain on the windows.  It cleared up later in the afternoon and we went out for a walk for about an hour and a half – up the side of a valley overlooking the Murchuison valley.  By this point it had cleared and the forecast for the following day was not too bad, so we agreed with our tour leaders to strike out early and walk up to Sealy Tarns – so at least doing some of the day we had missed although we would not get all the way to Muller Ridge.