Where in the World is Saura

We are using this great guide book on New Zealand to help us out during our travels, and it lead us to this great free campsite at Lake Pukaki, known to the locals at “the Pines”. I’m not exactly sure who these locals are, since there was not a dwelling to be seen in the area. I believe there are a few high country sheep farmers around and there is a bit of fishing in the area. It was overcast when we arrived, but that didn’t cast shadow on the incredible hue of the lake. Sediment from the glacial waters that feed this lake create this wonderfully opaque pastel green aqua color. The first color that came to my mind was seafoam green. Although I tried, pictures do not give it justice. Stone alters line the rocky beach of the lake, made by the many campers before us. Of course we had to make our own mark, but we don’t have a snapshot since there was a couple cuddling by it when we where heading out. We opted not to disturb them and decided it was meant not to be documented.

Much of the area was quite windy and exposed, but there is a grove of pine trees that offer protection from the wind. There were a few campsites with fire rings on the side of the pines opposite the lake. We spent the afternoon by the lake, and when we went to move the van to one of the campsites we found someone had beat us to it. They had already started a fire, so we decided to introduce ourselves and jump in on what they already started. The girls at the site were Ali from Scotland, who has been travelling for six months already and Nicky from England, who had just arrived a few weeks ago. Their van was a cow named Betsy…great stuff. We all sat by the fire and swapped stories until the sun went down, then we marvelled at the stars a while, and winded down until we drug ourselves off to our tent. We met our new mates for breakfast the next morning before we all headed off…Al and I to Mount Cook, and Nicky and Ali to Lake Tekapo. I have to say Nicky is brilliant with her camp fire cooking. She made poached eggs on toast over the coals. It was great, and now I can start making poached eggs. Good stuff.

So we left will full stomaches for Mount Cook. The landscape got progressively more awesome as we neared Mount Cook, also known by its Moari name Aoraki. About 14,000 years ago the whole area was covered by glaciers, and they have left great marks in the region. We drove through the basin as rugged mountains jutted up on either side of us. As we turned a corner on our route, the rocky peaks and ice of the big boys appeared to us and all we could really muster was “Wow”. The area around Mount Cook is so amazing that it is actually moving. As we where walking at the base of these giants, under the rocky ridges, ice, and snow, we both felt utterly insignificant and meek in comparison. You can really understand what makes people risk their lives to climb to the top of these great peaks. We just saw a portion of the snow covered mountains, but how magnificent would it be to look in all directions and only see the mountains and snow.

We did two short walks, the first took us to a swing bridge, the second to Tasman Glacier. The winds were gusting, making the walk across the swing bridge slightly frightening and fun. The hike up to the glacier lookout was a bit difficult with the wind as well, and Al even lost his hat over the side. It was quite a sad event, but he hasn’t replaced it yet.

After Mount Cook we made our way back out to the coast to get to Dunedin. Our friend Adam coaches tennis there, so we planned to spend a night or two with him. Here are a few pics from Oamaru and Moeraki.

Friends in Dunedin:

We had a great time in Dunedin, we met up with Adam, and his friends Wingo and Ciara who are attending the University. Wingo is on an exchange semester from UNCA, and Ciara is from Dublin. We ran around town, went to a club, decided we had to stay another night, recovered from the last night with lunch and movies, and ended that night with a great seafood dinner that we made at the flat. It was a very interesting weekend, and we both had a great time. So that brings us up to date, I’m typing out this blog using the wireless at Starbucks (we’re also using the wireless to download the latest 24, can’t wait to see how Jack will stop those terrorist attacks). Once I get this finished we will continue south to the Catlins. There is alot of great wildlife to see there and we have plans to do a multiple day tramp, we just have to stamp out the details when we get there as we don’t know if it is a loop or not. Well, thats our trip so far and we’ll get back with you soon. And I’m happy to say that the last few pics do have links to the original size. We really want to head on, so we’ll redo the others later.
love,

us

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.