Last week in New Zealand inc Mt Cook

View on our walk
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With one week left in New Zealand we decided first to head over to Mount Cook and explore the area. On the way we went to Lake Tekapo and Michelle managed to get on a Star Gazing evening tour at the observatory there. It was a great experience a Lake Tekapo is one of the best places in NZ for astronomy as it has fantastic clear night skies.

The next day we drove to Mt Cook in the pouring rain. Luckily we were staying in a brilliant YHA hostel - one of our favourite in NZ with a really cozy alpine feel. Once the weather cleared the next day we had a superb view of Mt Cook from our bedroom window. We checked out the posh Hermitage Hotel in the village and whiled away a couple of hours toasting marshmallows in their open fire.

The beautiful view down to the bay of Akaroa
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We did a three hour walk up to a glacial lake with even better views of the mountains. As we walked we could hear and see avalanches up in the mountains. A highlight was an afternoon Glacier experience tour which involved a boat trip on a huge glacial lake where we got to get up close to the terminal face and see massive icebergs that break off and float around the lake.

Next stop was back to Banks Penninsula which we'd liked so much on a day trip there we wanted to explore it more. We had a perfect day for walking with stunning views all around (and no other tourists) especially when we reached Stony Peak - 900m above Akoroa. We stayed one night in the highest rated hostel in NZ- Halfmoon Cottage- intrigued to see what it was like.  It was in a lovely quiet spot in one of the bays and a nice place, but not necessarily that much better than other places we've stayed.Back in Christchurch for our last night in NZ we stayed centrally as we had a 4am pick up for the airport, and went to see Casino Royale at the cinema. Great film.