Working dogs and runny noses

Day 8 Monday April 11


Rats! I have a cold. Had to pop the Panadol this morning. Instead of coffee I’ve been imbibing hot lemon, honey and ginger.

Autumn colours. 


We’re on the road to Mt. Cook, hoping the clouds will part long enough for us to see the peaks and photograph them. Mt Cook aka Mt Aoraki is 3754 metres high, the highest in NZ. Being so tall, her peak is often obscured by cloud, as it is when we first see her.

We passed the longest pivot irrigator, consisting of 29 sections, making it over one kilometre in length. Each section costs between $11000 – 15000 each, making it a very expensive piece of equipment. Judging by the lush green growth everywhere it must be worth it. I'd love to be able to draw it for you but can't and obviously failed to take a photo, only lord knows we were driving by it long enough!

Perhaps this year, it hasn’t been used much; two major lakes in the area namely Lake Pukaki and Lake Tekapo are the fullest they’ve been in years, fed by the largest glacier in NZ, the Tasman.

Sir Edmund Hillary. 

At the Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre in Mt Cook village, the clouds parted just as we were about to leave. Of course we had to photograph them which made us late for our next rendezvous. I was reluctant to leave the mountains that reminded me so much of the Cascades, kept looking back for a glimpse of Mt. Aoraki as we drove away.

The elusive Mt Aoraki. 

Lake Tekapo viewed from the Church of the Good Shepherd. 

Traversing through an area known as the McKenzie district, we passed a mound where the St. John Observatory is, eventually reaching the Church of the good Shepherd by Lake Tekapo. It is a working church with a stunning view. Nearby someone has put some of the many stones to good use, fashioning stone cairns. A short walk away sits the memorial to sheepdogs, a border collie.

Monument to sheep dogs.  

Lunch stop at Geraldine where the Giant Jersey (cow) lives. I didn’t see it and only know about it when devising trivia questions with another tour group member the following night!

This night we stayed at the Methven Resort. Love their open plan style and the rare beef carved for us by the proprietor, but the outstanding feature was the drying room. Most of us headed for the laundry, almost came to blows over the two washing machines (only kidding!) but a room usually used for ski clothes came in very handy for us once we washed our clothes..