Clay Cliffs of Omarama

We drove on from Mt. Cook, south, through Twizel (not as in Twizzlers), stopping at the so-called Clay Cliffs, on the Ahuriri River. The Clay Cliffs are billed as similar to the American Badlands. They are indeed similar, if quite limited in extent. Sensing that there would be no Wall Drug nor jackalopes, not even a Corn Palace, not even a rattlesnake, we snapped a few pix and drove on, camping at a free DOC site on the river.

The beautiful, clear, fast-flowing Ahuriri--there are browns
and rainbows in them thar waters

Clay Cliffs

Closer up

Ditto

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

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