Albatross trivia and Mt. Cook facts

February 1st, 2003 at 12:00am

I’ve been rather busy these past few days. Yeah, so I checked out the albatross colony on the Otago Peninsula and it was very cool and worth the 4-hour detour to see. I was lucky too because January is the month that the chicks hatch and I got to see 5 albatross sitting on their egg (or chick). It’s the only mainland albatross colony in the world (that’s a bit of albatross trivia for you).

I also stopped on the way out of Otago to see the famous castle but in my opinion it was overpriced and not very interesting or spectacular. Ok, so you don’t go to New Zealand to see castles.

I finished my driving experience in NZ be delivering Sally’s car to Riverton and in the end I had no problems and no speeding tickets either. I arrived in Riverton on the 29th and met up with Sharlene and Sally who had just come off the Hump Ridge Track with 8 other family and friends as a celebration of Sally’s 40th birthday. That night we all went out to dinner in Riverton and Sally was very generous in paying for everyone. The food was incredible.

On the following day everyone packed up and drove the 4-hour ride back to Queenstown. Sharlene decided she needed some quality time with her boyfriend, so I stayed at a campsite instead of sleeping at her place. Hey, I can understand. And Sharlene’s been more than hospitable already.

I really didn’t have anything else to do in Queesntown though so the next day (which was yesterday), I left. I woke up early at the campground to go food shopping and pack up. The morning sun and sky were absolutely amazing – the sun was dark orange and the sky was grey, like an apocolypse. Turns out that it was the smoke blown over from all the fires happening in Canberra, Australia. Weird.

Anyway I hitched from Queenstown to here in 4 rides. By the time I got to the junction for the road to Mt. Cook Village it was nearly 7pm and I was so lucky to get that last ride from 2 Australian women. I was even luckier I think to get a bed at the YHA hostel because it’s the only hostel in Mt. Cook Village and is normally fully booked (someone didn’t show so I got their bed). It was a good thing too because yesterday the winds were blowing like mad (over 150 km/hour) and it started to rain just when we arrived!

I was wanting to start the Mueller Hut Track today but DOC advised against it because the winds are still very strong. The woman at DOC told me that yesterday people were literally CRAWLING off the ridge from Mueller Hut because the winds were so strong. No Thank You! But the weather is supposed to change for the better tomorrow so I decided to stay another night and see what happens. The YHA is full tonight so I’m tenting at the park’s campsite. I had some really ignorant Europeans park their campervan right in front of my tent earlier so I had absolutely NO view except campervan (even when there were loads of other sites), and it put me in a most unpleasant mood for awhile and I even put a note on their windscreen but then I took it off and thankfully they moved anyway. When it’s just little ol’ me in a one-person tent and no car in these big campgrounds, I just get eaten alive by the campervans. I have no way to protect my space!

Spent the morning looking around the visitor center where I watched a 1-hour video on the first ascent of Mt. Cook, which, by the way, is the highest mountain in New Zealand at 3754 m (first summited in 1894 by 3 NZers). Then I walked the 40-minute trail to the campsite (which unfortunately is also accessible by road for the evil car campers), and set up my tent in a most beautiful view that was all mine until the Attack of the Campervan.

In the afternoon I did the Hooker Valley Walk which is a 3-hour return walk to Hooker Lake with amazing views of Hooker Glacier and Mt. Cook. It’s still been very windy today but the sun has stayed out. Let’s hope for a chance to do Mueller Hut tomorrow.

Walking up the Hooker Valley

Hooker Valley, with Mt Cook in the clouds

Climber Memorial, with Mt Cook in the background

Entry Filed under: Hiking/Trekking,Mt. Cook,New Zealand