New Zealand | Day 3 | Aoraki / Mt. Cook Nat'l Park | Monday Feb 1st, 2011

Apparently, the old saying is true: good things come to those who wait. After listening to the howling wind and rain all night, we woke up at about 6:30, and looked out the window to find...pouring rain.  Fair enough.  We made tea, watched some more Kiwi shows on our tiny 2-channel TV and wandered around the village to find some breakfast.  At 9:45, we reported to our Glacier Kayaking trip, and the rain kept on falling.  Our guide came out to inform us that our trip was cancelled, but that we could put our names on the 2pm list and see if the weather improved.  We agreed that the kayaking trip was of great importance, and wrote our names down.  Somewhat discouraged, we sat down at the Old Mountaineer's and had some tea and muffins (very tasty) and gazed out the window, wondering if the day would improve.

As if on cue, the rain stopped.  I dropped my muffin, pounded the rest of my tea and stated my intent to immediately start hiking into the valley.  Clark said she wasn't finished with her coffee yet.  So, I poured another cup of tea.  Fully caffeinated, we grabbed the cameras, and set off for Kea Point, which was about a 2 mile walk from the village. Below is a sampling of what we saw:

So, yeah...pretty amazing morning. Between 10:15 and noon it went from raining to blue skies and awesome views of Mt. Cook.  After scooping our jaws off the ground and having a 45 minute photo shoot with the mountain (you're only seeing about 2% of the total photos here) we headed back for some lunch and went back to report for the 2pm.  The guide informed us that unfortunately, it was just too windy, so we didn't get to go kayaking.  We kind of figured that after being buffeted with 30-40 mph winds in the valley, but hey, it was worth a shot. Instead, we went up to the activities desk and signed up for a 4WD tour to go and see the same glacial lake we were going to kayak on.


No, I didn't actually get to drive.



After the tour, it was about 5:30 pm and we still had a 3 hour drive to Queenstown, so we hopped in the 'ol station wagon and cruised out of town.  Mt. Cook gave us a pretty awesome day - totally worth the wait. Thanks dude.