Stairway to Heaven

We have been on the move both around New Zealand and hiking. Lake Tekapo and the Mt John Observatory Night Sky Tour were high on my list to experience. This area is the best place to view the night sky in the entire southern hemisphere. Well, it's great unless it is total cloud cover and major winds. We cancelled.

Next up was Mt Cook. No, not for climbing but to visit the area. We got in 2 really great hikes in marginal weather but beautiful alpine scenery. John picked the Sealy Tarns hike with 2200 steps for one of our outings. I swear it went straight up and it really was that many stair steps.

It happens to be absolutely peak season for the lupine and they line the highways everywhere. We certainly have seen millions of them. I was sad to hear they are a serious threat to health of the rivers. They create a root web that stabilizes lands in braided rivers, robbing native plants and animals of the natural river processes they need to survive. Dang, they are so pretty!

Lake Punakaki on the way to Mt Cook. It looks like a swimming pool, unreal turquoise.

There are 3 swing bridges on the Hooker Valley trail at Mt Cook. This trail was very busy.

Mt Cook was very shy, in the clouds almost the entire time we were there. This is the best shot we could get. We were in a restaurant that cleared out as everyone  raced to get their photos during the brief appearance!

This is called the stairway to heaven hike. Great views and worth the climb.

View of Hooker Valley from our stair climb hike, Mt Cook Village on the middle right. Mt Cook is farther to left so not in view here

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Mt Cook lily, for you flower lovers. All of the alpine flowers seem to be white.