Mount Cook - Sealy Tarn Track

Good morning salmons!! @ Twizel Salmon Farm..

Yes, we are excited too!!! Making our way to Mount Cook today!

From highway 8, turning into SH 80, we saw Mount Cook for the very first time. The road towards the tallest mountain of NZ, Mount Cook (world heritage listed) is so beautiful, with Lake Pukaki on the right hand side.

We visited the DOC info center to learn about the weathers and short walks available. We knew that today's weather going to be sunny while tomorrow is looking at rain and cloudy. So we will try to do the Sealy Tarn track (3hrs return) today! But the weather forecast in NZ is always not so accurate :p The weather can change anytime, especially here at Mount Cook where the westerly winds blows towards the mountain....

Reaching Mount Cook Village.. Oh no cloudy again...

So we proceed with our walk at Sealy Tarn*****, accessed from the White Horse Hill campground. It was a steep climb! More like climbing a long long staircase for 1.5 hours. So much pressure on the ankles and knees. But finally we made it! And the view is so so rewarding....

A good view of Mount Cook and two glacier lakes, Hooker Lake and ... Forgotten Lake Name =P

While taking our time to capture Mt Cook, avalanche is happening every now and then.. The sound is so loud and large snow falling down so heavily.. GOsh imagine having to hike under such condition...

Sealy Tarn track View

Ma Ma Miaaaa~~~

Sunset view @ Kea Point

Mueller glacier moraine wall (the grey part), the glacial debris formed this massive wall..

There is a Mueller Hut 3 hrs climb to the top of Mount Sealy to get a panorama view and watch Mt Cook during sunset &sunrise! But the track is covered in snow, so we did not even try to think of going. Not to our limits with only one sleeping bag and unsuitable footwear. So we can only try to see Mt Cook during sunset at Kea Point, again. We did not manage to see the 'pink' colour of the Mt Cook during sunset, it was too cloudy, but we did manage to see the peak of the mountain, finally!

This cute cloud formation keeps appearing then disappear above Mt Cook =)

The only DOC campsite at Mt Cook village, White Horse Hill Campground $10 pp... With good cooking shelter and clean toilets... Shower available for $2 for 5mins at the Day Shelter near the info center at the village.

Lake Gunn Nature Walk, Lake Marian & Humbolt Falls

A beautiful morning! We started our day with an easy walk from our campsite at Cascade Creek, the Lake gunn nature walk. It says 45 min loop, but took us like 1.5 hrs! Its an ancient red beech tree forest, many birds flying around, with keas high up above the canopy.

Looks like an old tomato old man...

Next on, we went for the Lake Marian 3 hr return walk. Quite exhaustive with the climb up.. Passing few rock falls area which demolish some part of the forest. But the view of Marian Lake with surrounding mountains is totally worth it!

Marian Falls

Lake Marian*****

A must go in Fiordland... Such pristine lake... When there is no wind :p we spent 3 hours here just picnicking and relaxing.. The most beautiful lake so far, or maybe second best after Lake Manapouri. Hard to tell, Lake Manapouri is so massive, and this Lake Marian is small, like the perfect size with the mountains around.

Fun time at Lake Marian

Humbolt Falls***

Humbolt Falls 30min return, but we manage to make it in 15 min because we had to get out of the Lower Hollyford road before 6pm! That's because we spent half a day in Marian Lake and forgot other point of interest to see!

Beautiful Lupins at Mackay Creek DOC Camp

We stayed the night at Mackay creek doc campsite, $6 pp. Our most recommended DOC campsite along the Milford Road! Absolutely beautiful views of the Eglinton valley with snow capped mountains. And the pretty Lupins flowers that grows along the creek. So many colours! In fact they are not so beneficial to the plants and animals as they are too competitive!

Our last night in Milford Sound, see you again in future!

Franz Josef Glacier

Sneak peak of Franz Josef Glacier!!

After an awesome wet day at Punakaiki yesterday, we decided to stock up some rainproof gear at Greymouth. We bought our gum boots and rainproof pants at Warehouse store in Greymouth, we are ready to hit on the rainy spring weather, bring it ON!! 

We stop by the small town of Hokitika, to view the famous NZ Greenstones (Pounamu in Maori) or Jade as we called it in Asia. The West Coast of NZ is abundant with this valuable stone, where the Maoris would use them as gifts, hunting tools and fishing tools. Since it had been raining for few days, we tried our luck in picking greenstones by the Hokitika beach, because after some rain, the stones will be flushed from the rocks in the forest by the river, flowing to the sea of West Coast then subsequently ended up on the beach!

Under the rain, we search and search, for fun really because there are all sorts of funny looking stones! Real good fun, and we ended up taking a small bag of stones, one even resembles the map of OZ! (Sigh, the pictures for Hokitika had mysteriously GONE from our hard drive*** )

After that stone hunting, we continue to travel to the World Heritage area of Westland National Park. Tonight we had to stay in at Franz Josef Terrace Motel caravan site because it had been raining for 2 days non stop and we need to wash and dry all our wet clothes. We had a busy night trying to dry the clothes in the dryer, 3 rounds of drying but still not wet. So we had to hang everything inside the van since it is still raining outside. The rain and humidity makes the clothes even wetter =.=

Next morning, we went to the Franz Josef Glacier Valley walk***** 45 minutes of easy walk which leads us to this spectacular Glacier formation! Although it's raining and cloudy, we can still see the glacier clearly. The blue color reflected from the glacier is so pretty!

Waterfall gushing from the valley, as the continuous raining brings more and more waterfall!

Can't believe that we will walk the Fox Glacier (which is half an hour drive away) tomorrow! Franz Josef is so beautiful from far, what's more if we can touch it! Many years ago, back to when the Europeans settled here, there were glaciers up to where we are standing on this picture above. The glaciers have been eroding and changing everyday. 

OMG such adventurous lads!!! Rafting at this quick milk glacier river, in the rain! So exciting to watch to maneuver through those rapids and rocks!  

Look at the Valley, once shaped by the glaciers, which had been eroded after many years!

From the glacier, another 20 minutes walk to the Sentinel Rock***** gave us a good idea of how the glacier eroded. 

FACT: the glaciers is formed by the weight of fresh snow which falls on the neve surface (catchment). This squeezes any air pressure to create soft ice. Once most of the air is forced out, hard blue ice is created.  It's blue colour relected is not the colour of the glacier, but caused by the absorption of both red and yellow light (leaving light at the blue end of the visible light spectrum). 

Maori story on the Westland Glaciers: Tears of the avalanche girl: Hinehukatere loved to climb in the mountains and she convinced her lover, Tawe, to join her even though he wasn't an accomplished climber. He climbed with her and was killed by an avalanche. Hinehukatere's tears flowed and flowed down the mountain and froze, forming the glacier of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier.

Lake Matheson @ Fox Glacier