Saturday, January 25, 2014

Mt. Cook, 2

We spent parts of 3 days in the Mt. Cook area, driving, hiking, visiting the museum and visitor center, watching the movies, etc. It's a pretty spectacular alpine place.
Another day, on Lake Pukaki, looking toward Mt. Cook, now
in a total white-out of wind, rain, blowing snow...
















At the Hillary Alpine Center















Tenzing and Hillary, from a photo in the museum; the best
bit of the museum is the 105-minute Hillary film, his life,
narrated by no less than Ian McKellen; an equally good film,
on all aspects of Mt. Cook--geology, history, climbing
history, tourism, environmental issues, etc.--is at the
Department of Conservation visitor center; really superb




















We weathered the storm--torrential rain mostly--at the Mt.
Cook backapacka
















Next day...fine weather again

Mt. Cook, again















Fine enough weather for another walk, this time up to Lake
Tasman, at the end of Mt. Cook's Tasman Glacier
















Thus; Lake Tasman was not there, 20-30 years ago, starting
then as a pot-hole, then melting the glacier from beneath; it's
now 2-3 kilometers in length, and growing

















Closer up of lake and glacier, and icebergs














Closer up of Mt. Cook summit ridge, a horrific kilometer-
long knife-edge of snow and ice; from southeast
















Thus; OK, it's not actually my photo



Us at Lake Tasman















Looking back to the huge out-wash plain leading down to
Lake Pukaki
















Last look at the big mountain and it beautiful turquoise lake

Mt. Cook, 1

After Edoras we drove to a campground on Lake Tekapo, one of several very large turquoise lakes emanating from the Southern Alps. Next day we drove up to Mt. Cook, a sight we had missed on our 2008-2009 New Zealand visit (bad weather). Mt. Cook is the highest of the Southern Alps, only 12,000-something feet, but still a famous and formidable mountain...in the same range, altitude-wise, with Mt. Robson, the Grossglockner, the Eiger, etc. Anyhow, I wanted to see it and especially the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center located in the Mt. Cook village there. Hillary—known as Sir Ed among New Zealanders—was, with the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first to climb Mt. Everest, back in 1953, part of the great expedition led by Lord Hunt. Hillary had a variety of further adventures later in life, but he is best remembered for Everest and for his subsequent devotion to the Nepalese, building schools, hospitals, airfields, and so on. He is revered in Nepal as well as in New Zealand, and among mountaineers everywhere.
Lake Tekapo; similar to the Finger Lakes, it and its neighbor,
Lake Pukaki; there are huge lakes all over the South Island,
mostly east of the big mountains

















Traveling with children; the twin 10-month-olds are in the
carriage
















Looking up Lake Pukaki, Mt. Cook, still 20 miles or so away 















Closer















Climbers on a wall near the Village















Closer















"Big mountains make their own weather," episode #9,229















While the weather was still decent, we decided to do the
Hooker Valley day-hike, said to be New Zealand's finest
















Lunch, sitting on a promontory, watching avalanches off an
adjacent mountain
















One several cable bridges















Hooker Creek and afternoon weather




















The goal: Hooker Glacier and Hooker Lake















Icebergs off the glacier















Thus















And thus















New Zealand daisies along the trail

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Edoras, Golden Hall of Theoden, King of Rohan...aka Mt. Sunday

Students of this blog know that our previous visit to New Zealand featured a number of Lord of the Rings sites. We are both LOTR fans. One of the sites we missed in 2009 was Edoras, the Golden Hall of Theoden, King of Rohan. We sort of missed that part of the South Island (as well as Christchurch), and, besides, Edoras, aka Mt. Sunday, was reputed to be hard to get to, remote, and on lousy roads. Well, it is a bit remote, but the roads were just fine, gravel the last 30k or so, but good, recently-graded gravel, and not much out of the way on our route to the big mountains.
Approaching Edoras, a roche moutonnee in a great outwash with the Southern
Alps in the background
















Now on the path leading to the little mountain















And there it is















Of course it looked different in The Two Towers










View of the Southern Alps from Edoras; background for the attack of the Wild
Men
















Another view from Edoras; the setting for Helm's Deep is
in the canyon in the center
















"Surely you wouldn't deprive an old man of his walking stick?"















Actually it was her walking stick















And as we're climbing back down, the LOTR tour bus arrives ($250 from
Christchurch, lunch included)
















Beautiful salmon stream nearby















Vicki on the one-person cable bridge across the stream





















Last look at Edoras



Rakaia Gorge

After four days in Christchurch, sorting, provisioning, packing the car, sightseeing, we headed into the interior. Rakaia Gorge is said to be New Zealand's finest river walk, and, we thought, a good place to begin getting our legs back into practice. We stayed at campground and walked a few miles into the gorge and back.
Christchurch sunset; the Maori called New Zealand Aotearoa,
"Land of the Long White Cloud"
















The Rakaia river and gorge, and huge outwash; we are in
the foothills east of the Southern Alps, an area of great
rivers and even greater lakes

















A bit of the terrain, now well past spring floods















Looking up-river toward the foothills

Christchurch's Canterbury Museum

Oddly, most of the historic statues and
monuments survived; here, Captain Cook





















Beautiful art nouveau fountain in the city's Hagley Park















One of the largest city parks in this part of the world















The 1870 Canterbury Museum apparently suffered little
damage















The excellent collection is divided between Maori culture
and that of the British colonists

















Thus




















And thus; Maori ceremonial weapons and items















Christchurch was organized by the Canterbury
Association, headed by the archbishop, to build
a city that would exemplify Victorian virtues





















Such as...exploitation, theft, imperialism...















Among the many impressive artifacts of the
colonists





















A glass sailing ship; the glass collection was all the more
impressive for having survived the tremors















More of the collection















Sewing machine and attachments















Light-weight typewriter
















One for you, Tawana