April 2-3, 2019: Two Days in Hororata
April 4-5, 2019
Hermitage
Our next stop was Mount Cook, where we took a segway to Lake Tekapo for lunch at the Mackenzie Grill. We took a walk to the footbridge to admire the beautiful blue water. We finally made our way to the mountains and arrived at the Hermitage. We weren’t as close to New Zealand’s highest peak as I thought we would be, but we still had a gorgeous view from our window. Once settled in, we took a one hour walk towards Kea Point. Since we had a reservation for dinner, we only made it half way, but promised ourselves we would explore some of the other trails the next day.
We had a nice dinner at the Panorama before our stargazing session. Unfortunately because of the weather, we were unable to go outside and see the stars. Instead, we went to “the dome” and had a virtual stargazing session. In the end, it being a good and relaxing time. No one really wanted to freeze their butts off outside while waiting their turn in line at the telescope…
We finally were able to sleep in till 10 am. We woke up to a cloudy morning, but no rain. Unfortunately we couldn’t see Mt. Cook, but we did see some views at Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier. We walked to Tasman Glacier Terminal Lake and then took the short walk into Hooker Valley. Only one out of the three bridges was open, but we were still welcomed by a fantastic view. The joke of the day was “Hooker Lake, Mueller Lake…what about Trump”?
The few things I learned today are
- Everyone here loves ginger and ice cream
- Manuka honey has medicinal properties
- The scopolamine patch worked for my motion sickness, but I definitely experienced the side effects.
April 6-8, 2019: Three Days in Queenstown