Two Days at Mount Cook

18 March (Wed.): Mount Cook – Tasman Valley
When I last wrote this blog, I was hiding from the rain in Mount Cook/Aoraki (Aoraki being the Maori name for Mount Cook). After packing up my laptop and leaving the café, I perused the visitor center displays – ranging from the history of mountaineering to the geology and biology of the area. The memorial book display was quite sobering: about 5 black bound books containing one page memorials to all the people that had died in the area. The entries gave the background on the people (some were very experienced in the terrain), age (some were ridiculously young), and reasons for their deaths (or the hypothesis of their disappearance). The books started at about 1910 and are still continuing. As I said – very sobering!

I left the displays and headed up to “The Hermitage”, a posh hotel with quite a bit of history. I was going to check out the “Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center” (Hillary was the first guy to summit Everest, he was a Kiwi and, in 1987, was knighted by the queen). However, I couldn’t be bothered with paying money to look at their displays, so I headed back to the parking lot. I saw a rainbow out over the valley, where the blue sky was trying to push the clouds back over the mountains. I decided to head to the Tasman Valley, figuring the walks in that area were short enough that even if the light rain started pouring again I wouldn’t be far from the car.

I stopped and parked the car off the road when I was about halfway to the trailheads. Past the open glacial river flat, in front of the cloud topped, rugged mountains, was a perfectly complete rainbow! I stopped, took pictures, cleaned the rain splatters from the camera lens, took more pictures, sat in my car enjoying the view, and then took more pictures. Seeing such a perfect rainbow lifted my spirits and had me smiling like an idiot. I absolutely love rainbows! They are so colorful, so impermanent, and so ethereal….. This rainbow was so perfect and clear! Sometimes, as a cloud passed over, the rainbow would lighten and be harder to see in some sections, but it stayed for ages! Hee hee hee, I couldn’t resist the temptation to have my picture taken with this perfect rainbow. I had to take the picture through the windshield of my car – in order to keep the rain off the lens and to get it propped up without a tripod.

By the time I finally reached the carpark, the rain had pretty much given up and the sky was winning the battle against the clouds (at least in this valley). I headed up towards the Tasman glacier, but got sidetracked when I decided to check out the blue lakes first. The walk was nice, but the lakes were far from what I expected. Hmmm, if something is called “blue lakes”, wouldn’t you expect them to be blue? These were a definite green color! Maybe it was the summer algae bloom? There were about 3 lakes scattered throughout the mounds of the glacial moraine. I kept following the track, thinking maybe I hadn’t actually found the “blue” lakes yet! Soon, I found myself on a 4WD road. I opted for following the road back to the carpark, as my GPS showed that the road continued into the mountains for quite a while.

So, I found myself back where I started! Ha ha ha. This time I headed straight for the Tasman glacier lookout. The walk was pretty easy, a few uphill bits as you crossed over the rocky mounds left by the glacier. The view was fairly stark – bushes had grown on the bottoms of the mountains, grasses were colonizing the rocky moraines, but the recently exposed land was still quite bare; just loose rock, lichens, and moss. I knew that I wouldn’t be extremely close to the glacier, and I’ve seen enough glaciers to know that the black, dirt covered surface I was looking at was actually ice. Ha ha ha, there was even an informational sign titled “Where’s the Glacier?” I knew, from showing people the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau, that people are usually disappointed when seeing the “dirty ice”. The Tasman glacier flows along the valleys of the mountains, looking very much like a continuation of the rocky mountain slopes. However, the ice was visible at the terminal face. Hmmm, I was going to go into some explanations of a couple of types of glaciers. I did a search to make sure I used the right terminology! Wow – I think I’ll just post the link here for those that are interested. My “non-scientific” explanation is: Hanging glaciers (glaciers that reside on mountain tops and drape down the sides – such as the Rob Roy Glacier near Wanaka) tend to be the white and blue idea of a glacier, because gravity allows the rocky debris to fall off and expose the ice. However, valley glaciers (glaciers that flow down to valley floors and are actively carving out the land as they move) tend to have gradual slopes at their bases, allowing the rock they are circulating within themselves to accumulate on their tops – making them look pretty much like the land around them. Wow – it’s amazing how much I can ramble on about this subject! Funny how it starts coming back, even though its been 8 (!?) years since I was a glacier guide!

Anyhow…. It turns out the Tasman glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand (according to the sign board). According to the USGS link I’ve added above, the Tasman glacier would be considered a calving glacier – since it terminates in a lake, which feeds a river. I think tidal glaciers (glaciers terminating in the ocean or another tidally influenced body of water) are a bit more interesting to watch, because the rise and fall of the water levels leads to much more active calving. There were many icebergs floating at the end of the Tasman Lake, but the likelihood of my witnessing a calving event would be very rare – even if I spent the entire day waiting. During my time as a glacier guide in Alaska (doing canoe tours across the lake), I learned that glaciers ending in lakes can calve from their face (hence the white ice visible under the rock debris), but they are just as likely to calve from below the lake! Tourists would always want to get closer to the glacier in the canoe, but we had to explain that while it was unlikely, it would be possible that if we got to close to the glacier an iceberg would pop up from under us!!! This would obviously lead to a lot of wet tourists that had to be retrieved and quickly warmed before hypothermia set in.

Ha ha ha, anyway – enough of the glacial learning section! Anyone interested in glaciers can figure out how to search the web. I hope the included pictures give you an idea of what I was seeing at the Tasman glacier….

Before going back to my car, I took another side trail and headed to the lake edge. The view wasn’t much different from the lookout, but I got a slightly closer look at the icebergs in the lake, and you can see a few of the spindly plants colonizing the moraine.

There wasn’t much of a sunset this night. The clouds hung low over the tops of the mountains and only a few clouds out in the valley turned pink. I headed to my tent after dinner, between spits of rain. Shortly after settling in for the night, the wind and rain settled in too……

19 March (Thurs.): Mount Cook – Hooker Valley
While the weather the night before (Tuesday night) had been rainy and bit windy, I had slept pretty well. However, I woke early this morning (Thursday) – slightly after midnight I guess – to crazy gusty winds and the sound of rain pelting off the tent. I slept real poorly after my tent, bending so far over in the wind, woke me by brushing my face! I got my hands muddy three times by resetting the stake holding my fly vestibule out. By 6am I was done!! I didn’t care what the weather did that day, I was leaving. I didn’t care if I was packing my wet tent up in the pouring rain, I was not spending another night lying wide awake and watching my tent bend at impossible angles. I was quite glad I had finally used my fly stays (extra lines to keep the fly off the tent) for the first time since buying the tent.

During the first break in the rain, I took everything to my car. I spread my sleeping bag and mat out to air. Nothing was wet, as my tent is very waterproof, but I wanted any condensation to dry (there wasn’t much because the temperature had been really consistent and warm). I had breakfast in my car and proof read the blog I had written the morning before. By the time I was finished, the rain had died to a light drizzle and the clouds were moving behind the mountains. I was pretty sure the weather wouldn’t hold, but I certainly wasn’t going to take it for granted either.

I had plans for the day (Twizel for blog uploading and showering followed by a drive to a camp near Christchurch). So, I decided to head up the Hooker Glacier trail for a couple hours and see how far I got. I left my empty tent staked out in the chance that the weather held and the wind, if not the sun, would dry it out. It was a good trail for fast walking; relatively flat and well graveled. I figured the rainbow that appeared against the mountains, under an expanding blue of sky, was a good sign for the next couple of hours.

I was still wearing my raincoat, but it really was more helpful as a windbreaker – as the wind was still howling past. I passed several groups of people in my haste to get as far as I could before turning around. Two swing bridges crossed the Hooker River, I didn’t take pictures while crossing either of them – there was no way I was letting go of the cable rails, let alone stopping! I was a bit afraid I’d be blown over! The wind just screamed over the river crossings!

The second swing bridge required near rock climbing abilities to get to it, as the trail edged around a sheer rock face (don't worry, there were railings to keep us novice climbers from falling). After crossing this second bridge the trail turned up the valley and Mount Cook could be seen. The clouds, while still heavy and hanging around, were staying off the top of the mountain. It must have been snow flying off the top of the mountain, as it looked like a cloud was being born right off the peak of Mount Cook. Within an hour of starting up the trail, I found myself at a small log shelter. I didn’t know how much longer I had to get to the glacier face, but figured I still had another half hour before I needed to consider turning around. I ran into a man coming back down the trail shortly after heading off again, he told me I was close and that the view was great – so of course I kept going.

I couldn’t have asked for better weather! When I reached the Hooker glacier lake, the sun was shining and the clouds were hanging near the mountain tops, but keeping clear of Mount Cook. The terminal face of the Hooker glacier looked pretty much like the Tasman. The face of the glacier was white, lined through with grey and again it was covered in grey gravel and debris. The glacier ended in an iceberg filled lake, though the icebergs were much smaller than at the Tasman. The strong winds were creating waves in the silt-brown lake and splashing up on the icebergs. The major difference between the two glaciers seemed, to me, to be that the Tasman glacier wound its way through valleys bordered by lovely, but unimpressive, mountains. The Hooker glacier was bordered by snow/glacier covered mountains and lay at the feet of Mount Cook. I sat and enjoyed the view for a good 10-15 minutes before deciding I best head back and get on with my day.

As soon as I turned my back on the glacier and lake I saw 2 people coming down the trail. They were the first of MANY people I encountered on the trail. Once again, I counted myself lucky to have viewed the majesty of nature in solitude. During the trip back to camp, I frequently turned around to view the last of Mount Cook and its surrounding mountains. I even took a short detour to view the terminal face of Mueller glacier: again, rock covered and grey with a white slash where it met the silt laden water. I knew, with my last look up the valley, that I wouldn’t be seeing Mount Cook - as it would be hidden behind the nearer mountains. What I saw though, was a valley being filled with clouds. I was pretty sure that the clouds would be converging on, and hiding, Mount Cook soon. I was so pleased that I had started down the trail when I had: I’d been treated to a rainbow, a view of the snow blowing off the mountain pinnacle, and a solitary appreciation of my surroundings!

When I arrived back at camp I immediately started packing up my tent. I was very happy to find that the wind had done an excellent job of drying everything out! I put everything in my car before the mist I was feeling became substantial and headed out towards Twizel. I stopped a couple of times to take pictures looking back towards the Mount Cook and its southern alps. The Hooker Valley was completely enveloped in clouds – from mountain top to valley floor – however, the Tasman valley was still blue skied and Mount Cook was still visible. After leaving Twizel (clean and relaxed from loading my blog), I stopped at the Mount cook lookout on Lake Pukaki. Clouds obscured the southern alps, and particularly Mount Cook, despite the blue sky above. I considered staying at one or two of the informal free camps nearby, in case the clouds cleared and the sun produced a spectacular sunset, but I decided to just keep driving to the DoC camp I had already planned.

I arrived at Pioneer Park, near Geraldine, fairly early in the evening. I had plenty of time to set up my camp, cook dinner, write a couple cards (one to Dave and one to his grandma), and then walk a short bush walk. The campsite was a nice open grass field with large deciduous trees – whose broad leaves were turning colors and falling. I could easily hear the wood pigeons flying between the trees and bush; if I looked up fast enough at the sound of their wings I could catch sight of them too. There were heaps of other birds that I could hear, but not see. The “10 minute” bush walk to an old homestead took me 20! In 1940 a guy had donated 242 acres of native bushland to the existing 62 acres the government had set aside. This bush makes up Pioneer Park, an oasis of bushland in the midst of pastureland and deer farms. The bushwalk was nice, but the light was dimming too much to take decent pictures; so I had to return the next morning to photograph the plants that caught my interest.