Mt. Cook, 2023

Our next stop after Tekapo was Mt. Cook/Aoraki national park, New Zealand's great mountain, which we visited in 2014 and again in 2018. As in previous years, we spent a couple nights at the DOC campground there and again did the Hooker Valley trail hike, often billed as NZ's finest day hike. For us, it was a final tune-up for our impending fourth Rob Roy Glacier hike near Mt. Aspiring.

At the visitor center, a helpful model of the environs; the thing to
note is the blue on the horizon...that's the Tasman Sea, which is probably
not 15 miles from the mountain; to get to the nearest coast town on that
side, Bruce Bay, however, you'd have to drive some 250 miles; much of
the South Island is that kind of "can't get there from here" sort of place

A superb visitor center, featuring all sorts of geological,
historical, animal, vegetable, and other exhibits; here,
the local bugs, from sub-montane to alpine

Well-attired mountaineer of yesteryear; actually,

I had an Harris tweed outfit much like this that

I wore while working at the Board of Regents in Ohio;

minus the leggings and boots; also I wore a brown

paisley tie...

Not what I wore to Tiki parties in that era

Many historical pix, not least several of Sir
Edmund Hillary climbing Mt. Cook; the Hillary
Alpine Center, which we visited in 2014, is next door;
what's of interest here is the braided climbing rope...

An example of which was in the visitor center; but no one could
explain to us its use, history, whatever; the ice axes are all Stubai
models, like the one I lost on Warbonnet Peak...a Stubai Nanga
Parbat...seen it?

Virtually the same campsite as in 2018

Vicki on swing bridge #1; what's unusual here is that this is the
most popular day hike in New Zealand, and there is no one else
in the frame; there were hundreds on the trail nonetheless

Rock glacier?

Real glaciers hanging in the surrounding peaks

Many views approaching Mt. Cook

Hooker Glacier in the distance and Hooker Lake (lower bits of 
glaciers are often covered in centuries of rockfall...

Complete with icebergs

Hanging glaciers, waterfalls, all around

A piece of ice from the lake melts into the shape
of the South Island

Up closer of the glacier; no calving while we were there; we've
watched glaciers in Canada, Alaska, Iceland, Norway, the Alps, Nepal,
here...if you want to see calving, there's nothing like Pietro Moreno in
Argentina

Beautiful, formidable mountain

It got down into the mid-40s in the campground our second night
there, and we were glad to move on...it's still summer here