After checking out this morning, we had some grocery shopping to do, knowing there are no shops at Mount Cook.

Our first stop along the road were the Moeraki Boulders about an hour north of Dunedin, on the coast. Simon had mentioned these and when I checked online, discovered there is a café nearby with seafood chowder on the menu, which I had been wanting to have since seeing it in a café in Fox Glacier. The boulders themselves were not as impressive as we had expected. A few smooth, almost spherical boulders on the beach. The food at the café, including the seafood chowder was excellent though and well worth the visit.

Just north of the boulders, we headed west, inland towards Mount Cook. The weather cleared up a bit once we headed inland. It had been pretty solidly raining all morning, but by 2pm we were driving through flat inland pastureland, with the sun shining and the car’s computer telling us it was 27 degrees outside. We stopped to check out some Maori rock paintings. We had been told when we did the cave tour in Charleston that there are no Maori cave paintings as the Maori believed that caves were the home of bad spirits and so never went into caves. Obviously, this did not preclude them decorating rocks or in this case the side of a limestone cliff.

Unfortunately they were badly faded and graffitied; with some having been removed physically to go to a museum. The most exciting part of this little visit for me, was to see the massive sections of limestone that had fallen from the cliffs, onto the original pathway, only 7 years ago.

The drive was highlighted by another large lake with not one, but two dams in it. Lots of little camps along the side of it and even a few fairly permanent looking caravans. After the first, twice dammed lake, there was a vast plain, used for cattle and sheep. Then we came to another lake which was the amazing glacial turquoise colour. It was amazing to drive along the western side of this lake towards Mount Cook. No windy roads to go up the mountain, just a gentle slope up to 750 metres above sea level to the foothills of Mount Cook and the “alpine village”.

We have a lovely, simple room with an initially awesome view of the surrounding mountains including Mount Cook and its glaciers.

The cloud has descended now and the mountains are invisible behind them. Unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow is for lots of rain. We are still hoping to do some walks either between the rainy periods, or we might just have to use our ever useful wet weather gear.