Day 262-263: Icebergs and other unbelievable things

About 100km north of Lake Tekapo, via a winding and unsurprisingly scenic road, lies the small village at the base of Mount Cook - which goes to show just how bloody massive Mount Cook is. For obvious reasons it has become something of a Mecca for mountaineers and there is a beautiful Tourist Information Centre courtesy of the DOC (of course) that details it's history and provides loads of information on what present day visitors can get up to. And I mean up to.

Now obviously as people that have, over the last few months, scaled a few mountains and dare I mention the erupting volcano we positioned ourselves in close proximity to, one may be forgiven for thinking that mountaineering is the next logical step. One could not be more wrong; nothing about having to defy death at every step, put up tents in gale force winds and sleep surrounded by snow...all for potentially days on end, is appealing to me. We opted for some comfortingly-mapped out walking routes.

Of which there are many and all of varying difficulty and offering diverse scenery. All with Mount Cook looming large in the background, of course, with its glistening glaciers, looking like it's been photoshopped in or cleverly painted onto the inside wall of a huge conservatory in a sort of The Truman Show; Serenity in the Southern Alps type thing.

As you can see we had perfect weather for it so it was more than a little bit strange to turn the corner after two hours of walking in blazing sunlight, over swing bridges and through streams, to find icebergs floating calmly in a lake. Ice ages really are incredible things.

Coming up here to the mountains is a bit of a detour, but with time on hands and walking boots firmly on feet it is easily one of the most brilliant detours your likely ever to make.