Connors' New Zealand Adventure: Going for it – A scenic flight over the Mt. Cook area

Greg and I both turn 50 this year so it’s been easy to justify some extravagances by calling them early birthday presents.

The first weekend in June was a long weekend in honor of the Queen’s birthday. (Queen Elizabeth II - Remember her from the previous post?) We used the long weekend to travel to Mount Cook Village in Mount Cook National Park.

We see Mount Cook from Hokitika every clear day, but to get from Hokitika to the village at the base of the mountain, it’s a 5 hour drive, going east over the divide and then south, then west and then north. The village is a little oasis at the end of a two-lane (sometimes one-lane!) road into the mountains.

On the way there, we stopped overnight at Lake Tekapo, the second largest lake in New Zealand. This lake must be the most turquoise colored lake in the world. Its color is spectacular, which is a fair description even though I am biased to any and all things turquoise. The town works very hard at eliminating night light pollution and is a destination for star gazing. The University of Canterbury has a special observatory here.

We woke up to a crystal clear sky day and decided it was a perfect day for a scenic flight. The flight was breathtaking. It was extra special to fly over locations we were familiar with from the ground, such as Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Mount Tasman and Mount Cook.

After the scenic flight and a hike to the observatory, we headed to Mount Cook National Park and stayed in the village there for two nights.

Twenty-two of New Zealand’s 27 mountains over 3050m (12,320 feet) are in Mount Cook National Park (per my travel companion – Lonely Planet New Zealand). At 3755m, Mount Cook is the highest mountain in Australasia (NZ+Australia+New Guinea+Pacific Islands – per my other good travel friend Wikipedia). The village is at elevation 747m, so Mount Cook rises an impressive 9870 feet from the village. All the mountains create dramatic and beautiful views especially with clear skies at sunrise and sunset. The area has a significant focus and history on mountain climbing. The first climbers to reach the peak of Mount Cook were New Zealanders who accomplished the ascent on Christmas day 1884! The DOC visitor center does a great job with interpretation of then and now mountain climbing. It’s so impressive to see the gear that early climbers used. More impressive is to see the gear that women wore in the earlier days of tramping and climbing around the mountains, long dresses and heels!!! We also visited the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center which has a great movie about Ed, who is one of the most famous New Zealanders. Of course seeing all this in the museum makes you want to get out and hike, which we did.