Mt. Cook

We got a small lie in today, out at 9:15; we went round the centre of Christchurch again since 23 people had joined us.

A long drive over the Canterbury Plains took us to Morelea Sheep Farm for lunch run by Angie and Stan with 600 acres.

The food was very good with a real Pavlova, ask Gwen about it, I got the recipe for her. We had a long and humorous chat from Stan about his family and farm which has 4,000 sheep and 250 cattle which he fattens up for beef, most of it going to America for burgers, the meat is a bit tough for steaks, we also got our first sheep shearing demonstration.

 

We carried on to Pukaki on Lake Tapuand took a 50 minute flight on a 12 seater fixed wing aircraft, to do as the pilot put it get up close and personal with Mt. Cook which is New Zealand’s highest mountain at 12,.315 ft.

The conditions were absolutely perfect and we climbed to 11,500 feet, 800 feet below the peak and circled the mountain getting some wonderful pictures. We saw peaks, glaciers, ice falls and lakes coming down to earth far too soon.

Far too soon we left for our hotel at Twizel getting a lovely shot of Mt. Cook on the way.