The wind has been howling all day yesterday and overnight, rattling the windows and tugging at the roof, and it continued to blow today. This is apparently the windiest time of the year. We headed off to hike at Mt. Cook after breakfast. Since Braemar Station is fairly close to the same end of Lake Pukaki as Mt. Cook is and there’s no way to get around on the short end of the lake, we had to drive all the way to the end on one side of the lake and then all the way back on the other side, and the lake is probably 15 miles long. Clouds were drifting over the top of Mt. Cook as we drove, and sure enough, by the time we got there the day had clouded over. And the wind was still blowing.
There’s a cluster of buildings in the village of Mt. Cook … a high-end hotel called the Hermitage, a camp ground I think, a Department of Conservation (DOC) facility, a bar and café, etc. In the DOC building there are two loose leaf binders memorializing each climber who has died trying to climb Mt. Cook. There’s a list at the beginning of each binder with the names, cause of death, age of the person, and location where they were lost. Causes included hypothermia, falls, heart attacks, and several “no trace.” Following the list was a page for each person, showing a picture and something about them. It was very moving.
The DOC person said that the hike we had planned wouldn’t be a good idea due to the wind, so we took a hike to Hooker Lake instead. We crossed two suspension bridges over a rushing river, then walked through a valley with lots of glaciers on the slopes above. We saw and heard the rumble of a couple of small avalanches while we were walking. The hike ended at Hooker Lake, which is a glacier fed lake, with the terminal face of the glacier at one end of the lake and chunks of ice that have split off and drifted to the other end of the lake.
We had lunch in the (marginal) shelter of some rocks, then headed back. Tonight is our final night party (we’re eating the salmon we picked up yesterday). Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch and go our separate ways, which will be sad.
Pictures are here.
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