Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 13.14 Mt Cook Village: In the Clouds & Beyond

14.A Into the Southern Alps from the Basin & Range Zone (Photo shot from a Great Sights Bus / Forgive the Reflectance)

What if you came all the way from West Yorkshire, England, to Mt Cook, New Zealand, and Mt Cook wasn’t there? Something of the sort happened to a lady Jean and I encountered in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, which we visited three weeks ago ('Aoraki' = cloud piercer). To be sure, the mountain was still there, but it was enshrouded in clouds and often lashed with wind-driven rain. So even the shoulders of Mt Cook had become a 'no go' zone of wet, slippery snow and ice. This lady had hoped to spend a night in a mountain hut, but she had decided she wouldn't attempt that, given what the weather had delivered. At least she had heroic aspirations… and made the best of her hard-earned vacation by trekking around, as did we, on valley walking 'tracks', as the Kiwis call them.

The Yorkshire lady told us she saved up money to come out to New Zealand about once every 3 to 5 years. Wisely, she hadn't gambled her money all on one place, having plans (as did we) to travel to Queenstown. I was glad that we hadn’t had to come so far, starting out in Te Awamutu days earlier and having come by a Great Sights bus from Christchurch. We would spend a night at the Aoraki/Mt Cook Alpine Lodge, which has a lounge (with a community kitchen) providing a spectacular view of Mt Cook, at least when Mt Cook is available for viewing.

As you can see from the accompanying shots, Mt Cook was unavailable. But all we had to do was turn away from Mt Cook and view to the southeast the Burnett Mountains. They are less photogenic than Mt Cook, to be sure, but bereft of clouds they were ready to be captured in their lineup. I took a certain delight in observing such a vivid contrast between the Southern Alps and the Burnetts, the Alps capturing the moisture-laden clouds driven in from the Tasman Sea and the Burnetts (further east) living in the ‘rain shadow’ of the likes of Mt Cook. The contrast is telling in the skies between photos 14.C and 14.D, below, taken from almost the same spot moments apart. They depict the dramatic effects of mountain rain-shadowing.

Mt Cook is New Zealand’s tallest, at 3,724 meters (12,218 ft). It sits in a national park established in October 1953 shortly after Edmund Hillary with Tenzing Norgay, his Sherpa guide, became the first to successfully ascend Mt Everest, on 29 May 1953. Hillary was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He rightly became a hero among not only Kiwis. His charitable activities were extensive and thoughtful. And in the Hermitage, the largest of the hotels in Mt Cook Village, there is a museum devoted, among other things, to Sir Edmund’s mountaineering and subsequent careers. Sir Edmund used Mt Cook as his primary training ground in mountaineering. Paid admission to the museum will also afford entry into what is billed as the world’s 'southernmost planetarium'. Because of the rain, we were more than happy to pay to enter the museum and to visit repeatedly -- as permitted -- the planetarium.

The morning before we left, the rains ceased more or less but the wind continued to howl over the mountains and through the valleys. Nonetheless, we did get in a brief walk on a track. We almost made it to the foot of a glacier, but had to turn back in order to catch our Queenstown-bound bus. We’d seen glacial ‘feet’ before and anyway we regarded it as a pleasant, affordable luxury to travel around New Zealand in a bus, not having to focus on driving.

The photos accompanying this post will almost surely disappoint, but our visit didn’t. The austere and grand beauty accompanied by the wind and the rain helped remind us that we are, as human beings, passing through. And that we did, leaving the Southern Alps behind (at least for a while) and re-entering what I’ve loosely called the ‘basin and range zone’ on our way to Queenstown. Of Queenstown I’ll have more to say in the next post.

But before quitting this post, I must mention that our Yorkshire co-visitor did find some reward in her venture into the national park. GreatSights (of the InterCity family of bus lines) coordinates with a helicopter company, whereby passengers inbound to the park can alight at a roadside helo pad to take a helicopter ride, weather permitting. The helo eventually deposits passengers at their destination hotel in the park. From the pad helo passengers are taken into the mountains, where they touch down on a glacier. Passengers can get out, throw snowballs, and take photos, of course. At NZ$250 per passenger when arranged thru Great Sights, the ride is undoubtedly a bargain. Jean and I took a pass. So there are no mountain-top photos in this post. But you can see such photos here.

As a somewhat puny consolation prize I've concluded the shots below with one of light shadowing in the basin and range zone to the east of the Southern Alps. Enjoy the dark and glow!

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

PS In the rain shadowlands east of the Southern Alps there are great opportunities to view the magnificent night skies of the Southern Hemisphere. Indeed, in the Mackenzie a dark sky preserve has been established to facilitate the viewing of the night skies. A 15 June 2017 article in the New Zealand Herald published night sky photos of one Kiwi photographer, Paul Wilson, that are well worth a look-see, here.