November 25, 2015
69: Mount Cook
We were at the bus station by 7:10am to wait for our bus at 7:30am. I walked to the closest coffee store, Muffin Break to get some breakfast! I grabbed two muffins, toastie (toasted sandwich) and orange juice.
Our bus driver, Tom, was awesome. He knew songs about areas like Geraldine and sung it to us. He had a nice voice!
We stopped at Lake Tekapo and saw the Church of the Good Shepherd, Mount Cook and surrounding nature!
Mount Cook is the 39th tallest mountain at 3,728m high. We heading to Mount Cook National Park, 1 of 14 national parks in New Zealand. The claim to fame is that its the highest national park in New Zealand. It has more than 140 peaks and 72 named glaciers!
By the time we got to the park, it was raining. Heavy rain going at different directions because of the strong winds. We had an hour to chill in Hermitages Aoraki Hotel which had a museum, gift shop, and food. It also had a fantastic view of the mountains around us.
We drove through and had a pitstop at Merino Country Cafe. The bus driver needed to reload the bus with fuel and so we had ice cream!
The three Tip Top ice cream flavours were passionfruit, mochaccino, and hokey pokey. Hokey pokey is one of the flavours that you can't get back in Canada. Its actually honeycomb bits in the ice cream!
We also went to the Lindis Pass Summit Lookout. Such fantastic views!
We passed by the 45th parallel south, which is pretty cool. Toronto is on the 43rd parallel north.
We arrived in Queenstown safe and sound. We checked into our lodge, which was on a steep hill! We grabbed groceries nearby and made breakfast sausage, pasta and tomato sauce. Delicious dinner!
