Rain, rain, go away

Before the rain on the way to Mount Cook
see all photos »

The drive to Mount Cook was rather long. Before we reached our destination we were awed by the aquamarine waters of Lake Pukaki and the views of the mountains beyond. Granted our views were a bit obscured by the clouds concealing the peaks but I was trying to be optimistic, at least the water was being lit by the sun.

Mt. Cook village is really only a cluster of hotels and camping grounds specifically located to allow easy access to the trails around the mountains, in other words, there is nothing else to do here. After hitting the visitor's center we were dismayed to find out that the weather was only supposed to get worse tomorrow, it wasn't yet raining but it didn't look too good. We decided to try a walk anyhow but when we got to the trail head it was raining lightly but the high winds made the rain feel like shards of glass were hitting my skin, not a fun experience overall, and I decided I didn't want to walk in these conditions. Instead we hit the hay early with hopes of being able to do a walk the next day - hey, the weather forecast has certainly been wrong here before, right? Wrong. The next morning it was still overcast but although the clouds looked threatening it wasn't yet raining so we set off for the trail head again. We made it there in time for it to start to lightly rain but today there wasn't any wind, so this was encouraging. I was feeling determined to see this area so we headed off in the rain anyhow, it really wasn't raining that hard.....of course, famous last words, no? Well it wasn't until we were about 40 minutes in the trail and past two swing bridges that it started to REALLY rain. I haven't been that soaked in years and I had my rain gear on! Well, we got back to the car and we had to dry off and warm up on our way to Lake Tekapo. I could only hope that the wacky weather would take a dramatic turn for the better.....Strange to think that I never saw the peak of Mount Cook because of all the clouds that surrounded it! How sad because the photos make it look incredible.