12-10-10

We woke up early after a rainy night and had a long drive ahead of us to Mt. Cook/Aoraki.  The drive was beautiful through the Octago region.  The area is in the rain shadow of the huge southern alps so it is rather dry with tussock grass  and rock jutting outcroppings all around, you would recognize it as the Plains of Rohan from Lord of the Rings.  We drove for several hours through that country and got out at a DOC park and went for a short hike to explore a little of it.  Heading north the scenery changed to desert looking tussock grass and we got back on roads we had already been on passing just east of Queenstown.  

Over a couple more passes and through Twizel we turned left onto 80 and headed towards Aoraki along the amazingly blue Lake Pukaki.  Once in the Aoraki/Mt. Cook DOC campsite we got a spot and headed out into the rain and wind to explore.  We headed up Hooker Valley fighting strong wind and downpours the whole time, the wind was so strong our faces and hands were sore and red.  We crossed a swing bridge in-between gusts  which got both of our adrenaline running for the day.  Every once in a while the clouds would lift a little on the hike exposing huge granite faces to the north with massing hanging glaciers all over them, we could sense that we were surrounded by something BIG and kept our fingers crossed that things would clear up and give us a look tomorrow.   After an hour or so the rain and  the wind picked up and the rain started to pour sideways so we returned to camp while we could still get across the swing big.  There were several people camping in tents at the campsite and we returned to find all the tents half blown over and every one of them soaked, and our love for Serena grew even more!  The campsite was probably the best DOC camp we stayed at and had a large enclosed kitchen area, we grabbed out cooking supplies and joined the 20-30 other campers seeking refuge in the shelter.  We had a nice dinner and played some cards while listening to the wind howl outside, some of the other campers who were in tents were discussing staying in the shelter since the wind had found a way to blow water inside every tent.  Right before bed we met a German girl who was sleeping in the shelter and was hoping her tent would not blow away, she asked to hitch a ride in the morning.  We kindly agreed to give her a ride after we went for a hike (if the storm blew over) then Shabs taught her a lesson in "getting your butt kicked at speed" then sent her on her way to bed.