Mt Cook And The DoC Camp...

 I'd had enough of fishing and decided to go to Mt Cook...
It's 55km up the south side of Lake Pukaki... Another road that's
mostly straight and flat... A few bends of course...

As a lot of the road travels round the edge of this beautiful

blue vista...

I stopped at a look out... With a bus full of tourists...

One of whom took my photo...

It was rather windy... A nor-wester which on the Canterbury 

Plains is a strong hot wind but in the mountains

is treacherous, sometimes lethally strong and very cold...

The wind the mountaineers dread.

 

Further along the sun began to disappear... The

clouds advanced...

What was I driving into?

The blue lake comes to an end and the valley is tussocks,

rocks and a shingle river bed that the Tasman River runs through...

This sign says 'cattle on the road next 5km'

I must be nearly there, the mountains are coming closer...

And 2km off the main road, just before the Mt Cook

village is the White Horse Hill DoC camp. It's very cold 

and getting dark at nearly 5pm.

 There's a good shelter and community hut... Lots of people

using it but I have everything I need in my bus.

It's right under the mountains and the snow.

Looking back to Lake Pukaki and the valley I had just

driven along... The last of the sun on the tops of the

mountains. It disappeared early from the flat area

that is the camp surrounded by mountains.

I found a parking spot and settled in for the night...

Cosy with my fire going.

I woke next morning to a chilly morning... 4 degrees... But

sunny and no wind.

And the sun peeping over the mountain tops...

Lots of people slept in their cars... And a few tents!

Brrrr....

It's 10am... The sun is coming as I set off for a walk up the Hooker 

Valley to the Hooker Lake. I didn't know it till I got back mid

afternoon but the sun is so low in the sky it 

 didn't reach my bus all day.