Little Adventures on Two Wheels: Lake Tekapo to Mount Cook

10/04/08: 45km, Lake Tekapo - bottom of Lake Pukaki
11/04/08: 62km, bottom of Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook
12/04/08: 20km around Mount Cook

We had a late start from Tekapo. It was a beautiful morning and it was so nice by the lake we were in no hurry to get moving. We had a look at the little church and ate some pies, not very good ones if I remember correctly. We left around midday and made it a short day on the bikes. We followed a canal going from Lake Tekapo all the way to Lake Pukaki. The landscape was very barren but nice. There were hardly any cars on the road, only four passed us in the first hour. We soon had stunning views of Mount Cook and then to top it all we passed the worlds highest salmon farm. How exciting!

In the afternoon we decided to call it a day to squeeze in a swim while it was still hot, so we camped on a rocky secluded beach at the end of Lake Pukaki, where we had a view straight across the lake and valley to Mount Cook in the distance. It was a clear night and the stars were amazing. How romantic. We saw lots of shooting stars, although after a while you tire of them and just watch the stars that don't move. It was freezing.

The next day we cycled on to Mount Cook Village, following the other side of lake Pukaki most of the way. It was a bit cloudy in the morning so apart from at sunrise we were denied views of the mountains. Apparently we passed the site of Middle Earth's greatest battle. There is not much to Mount Cook Village (not even a shop) but it is surrounded by snow caped mountains with glaciers reaching far down. We spent the afternoon having a shower at the public shelter then going to the campsite and soaking up the mountain atmosphere.

We started fairly early the next day which was very tough. There was frost on our tent, it was literally freezing. We packed up our tent as we had been told that there where Keas (some sort of rubber, foam and nylon loving parrot) around that would eat our tent and destroy our bikes if we left them standing around. We left our belongings in the public shelter and went for a walk up the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Glacier. It was a very nice walk and by the time we got to the lake in front of the glacier we were on our own. As it was nice and sunny and warm now we went for a quick dip.

In the afternoon we went for a wee cycle and walk up the Tasman Valley to get a view of the Tasman glacier (the biggest glacier in New Zealand). The glacier itself was not very pretty but the lake was nice with huge chunks of ice floating in it and the mountains in the background. We went to the pub in the evening to meet up with another cyclist, so later on we had to put up our tent in the dark, having trouble navigating our way through the pitch black camp site. At least the pints we had meant we did not notice how cold it was. During the night we woke up a few times to the sound of avalanches and crackling ice from the mountains.

Lake Tekapo