We decided to leave Omarama early this morning with the hope that we would see Mout Cook without cloud. We were rewarded for our early start by a beautiful sunrise and were on the road by 7.30am (really early for us) to begin the 98km journey to the mountain.
We were only about halfway into our journey before we started seeing the alpine looking landscape, and the peaks of mountains, a few of which had snow on them. This was obviously a tourist route as well because we were passed by numerous tourist buses both coming and going to the mountain.
As we got closer it became evident that the clouds would not be our friends today. There were low clouds over the peaks as we got closer to Mt Cook and only the lower slopes of Mt Cook itself were visible. It made the whole landscape feel moody and sombre and perhaps a little depressing. It was magnificent just the same. We could look behind us, down the valley, and see the brilliant blue/green of the river and Lake Ohau and the sunshine, but looking forward was shades of grey with the occasional splash of white snow.
The air was noticeably colder as well so I was glad I had dressed in warmer clothes this morning.
Our first treat for the day was a hot flat white at the Hermitage. From our vantage point we could see the bus loads of tourists arriving and taking their photos. It seemed amazing to us that they would pay all this money for a trip to NZ and yet a lot of them only had their phones for taking pictures with!
The Hermitage has a bronze sculpture of Sir Edmund Hillary and that looked good against the backdrop of the mountain.
Following our coffee we drove down the road to the Hooker Valley, and then set off on the path to the lookout and the Blue Lake (that is green). What we did not realise was that the path was all uphill, and it went quite a long way. If you look in the photo below you can just see the motorhome, and that picture was taken just below the lookout.
However, the view from the top was worth it. The glacial lake was grey with suspended rock and ice, and there were icebergs floating on it (and the inevitable tourist boats taking people out to see them). The Tasman glacier was huge (very wide) and covered with grit but you could see the ice underneath the grit as it entered the lake.
We decided that we had allowed enough time for the cloud to lift, but instead it only got lower, so we made our way back and headed towards Twizel. Bruce spent quite some time in the fishing shop purchasing a fishing license and some lures, and then we were off in search of a great place to camp and fish. That place turned out to be the NZMCA park beside the Ohau Canal, right opposite a salmon farm. We set up camp and Bruce set up the fishing gear and the battle began!
Away From Home NZ 
It doesn’t seem fair to catch them straight from the salmon farm does it 🙂
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