After a relaxing stay in Queenstown..the journey was calling again...so I joined another group of weary travelers on the loop back up to my eventual destination of Auckland on the north Island. We've got a few more weeks and a few more posts before Auckland, so I hope you stay tuned. I've got a few more good stories tucked away...that I'm hoping to share before we wrap this little trip up. The ride up to mountain was quite short. Our driver was an elderly chap who told us stories about how he used to be a sheep shearer in the olden days and how much it was changed. I guess they lived their lives like the old cattle hands back then and would be hired onto farms for the different seasons to do the sheering. The would be paid and given room and board to do the sheering. It was really bizarre to hear about the manual labor that still goes on today in New Zealand, but it did seem to be largely and agricultural society.
He told us a few stories on the three hour bus ride to Mt Cook but there's one that I remember pretty well...it was the story of Shrek the sheep ..that's right. Every year the sheep are pulled in to be sheered and there was a local sheep that had eluded being sheered for a good 3 years. Normally when they sheer the sheep they give about 6lbs of wool...but when they finally caught up with this sheep who they lovingly named "Shrek," he gave them 25lbs of wool. A local school was trying to raise money for a new playground and wrote a book about this elusive sheep to raise money. They not only raised all the money, but the book is still on sale today for the tourists.
As we got closer to Mt. Cook our driver also told us that there were a total of five glaciers on the South Island, Franz Josef(Glacier hike post), Mt Cook, Tasman, Fox and one other...:) Mt Cook is approx 12,000 so roughly the same size as the Grand Teton...although I think the Grand Teton is 14,000...still pretty high.
A bit of a historical tidbit for you, James Cook circumnavigated New Zealand twice on his discovery of the islands, he could see Mt Cook from the boat...He stopped here twice for supplies and get the natives...
Mt Cook was a site to see and I'm a sucker for mountains...just as long as it's not freezing, but after being in New Zealand for a few weeks, I'd adjusted a bit to the weather. The colors on the trees and bushes were so vivid.
There wasn't a glacier hike but you could take a helo ride for a mere 400NZD..Yikes...no thanks...I'll just take a bunch of photos...:)
At the end of the day, I was dropped off by our chatty bus driver at the hostel at the foot of the glacier...This photo was taken just by stepping out the door of the hostel.
At this stop, I was meeting a new Stray bus driver and new group of people...this was going to be alot of fun...:) Once they arrived I met our new groups which was funny because it was all girls except for one guy from Georgia who was a veterinarian and he name was "Dr Phil Good" and he even has business cards...and was giving them out to everyone...which his contact details...OMG...that is too funny...our entire group thought is was too funny...:)
There were a few hikes at this stop to get you closer to the glacier..but I opted out of the hike on this day.
