Aoraki (Mt. Cook)

We woke up just before the sunrise this morning.  I can’t imagine that you can sleep in very late in a glass house.  

I didn’t sleep well last night.  I love Skyscape.  However, it does have one disadvantage for a person like me.  It runs off solar, which I love.  However, it only has one outlet and it is in the kitchenette for the toaster.  There are instructions not to run the air conditioner at night when there is no sun.  I use a cpap machine at night for my sleep apnea.  There was no way for me to use my machine here.  Gayle assured me that she would not be disturbed by my snoring.  That was one of my worries.  The other worry is that when you have sleep apnea you wake up over and over again, never falling into REM sleep. That is the kind of night I had.  I was glad when the sun came up.  I will have one more night without a cpap machine.  

The options for coffee at Skyscape are instant (which is a definite no for Gayle) or French Press.  I obviously didn’t know what I was doing and I made us some weak ass brown stuff.  We knew that our first stop today would be somewhere we could get flat whites.  It didn’t take us long to get ready because there is no blow dryer at Skyscape.  You can’t be a princess here.  They did leave us good food for breakfast:  honey, yogurt, granola, bananas, and orange juice.

We headed out around 10 a.m. The weather app said it would be just above 30F at our destination.  We brought multiple layers with us.  Our first stop was the  Musterer’s Hut Cafe.  Armed with caffeine we headed toward Aoraki in hopes that she/he would pop out her/his head today. There were several scenic viewpoints along the way and, of course, we got out and took more photos of this beautiful turquoise lake, but we were unsure of where we should look to see Aoraki.

Aoraki is the tallest mountain in New Zealand at a height of 12,218 ft., thus making it a favorite destination for many, especially mountaineers.  There is a visitor Centre at the end of the road that features a museum named for Sir Edmund Hillary.  Hillary climbed Aoraki in 1948, fifty four years after the first recorded ascent by three New Zealanders, who do not have a museum named after them.  

The drive up to the visitor center takes about an hour from Twizel.  The road was nothing like the twisty roads to Akaroa.  It is a straight shot.  There are several one lane bridges over braided rivers.  

As we neared our destination it began to spit rain and then tiny flecks of snow.  Parking was a bit of nightmare but we were steadfast in wanting to find something within a short walking distance.  Gayle had sent to New Zealand before our trip for a handicap placard for the car.

We did a cursory tour of the Hillary museum and the Visitor Centre.  Gayle got a hat for her husband.  I asked at the information desk how to tell which mountain was Aoraki.  I was told it was the peak completely hidden by clouds behind the one whose base we could barely make out.  

With no mountain to gawk at we opted for lunch in the Hermitage Hotel cafe.  As we were eating our fish and chips I spotted a couple I know from the US from Song and Story Fest.  They were as surprised to see me as I was to see them.

Since we couldn’t see what we came here to see we headed back to Skyscape.  Afternoon naps sounded luscious.  When we left this morning we had closed every blind in the place so that the sun could not turn our little heaven into a greenhouse.  It was still quite warm when we arrived.  We both napped in spite of the sun beating in around the blinds.  Skyscape is best between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m.

Our dinner was the leftovers from last night’s platters of food.  Shortly after the sun went down we turned off all the lights and spent a glorious hour identifying the stars above us.  The Milky Way was in full display.  Orion was close to the horizon.  We located the Southern Cross.  We moved all around the room checking out what we could enjoy from every vantage point.  We tried to take photos to capture the wonder of what we were seeing, but it wasn’t possible with our iPhone cameras.

We crawled in bed by 9 p.m.  Tomorrow we leave for Queenstown.