South Island, NZ: Mt. Cook & The Lakes

From the moment we caught our first glimpses of south island from the plane window, we knew it was going to be special! Such beauty at every turn, that after a week, I think we grew a little immune to just how beautiful everything was!

After landing in Queenstown, we jumped in rental cars and made the few hour drive north to Twizel, which is near Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook. The drive itself was stunning, so much varied landscape and all of it so beautiful. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

 

The weather was gorgeous, and we knew a snow storm was set to roll in, so we drove straight to the lake where we were treated to beautiful views of Mt. Cook behind blue Lake Pukaki. The lupins were in season, so we also got some great views of Mt. Cook with flowers!

 

It turns out, that would be the most we would see of Mt. Cook in our remaining days in the area, as the snow storm did indeed roll in. Nick and I woke up early the next morning with the girls to try and do the Hooker Valley hike before the snow rolled in, but it ended up coming early than they predicted and by the time we reached the trailhead, the valley was cloudy and rainy/snowy. That meant we got to see some beautiful scenery with rainbows, though! And check out the color of that lake!

 

 

We did do a much shorter hike (though with quite a bit of elevation gain) to see a glacier. We actually could see half of Mt. Cook, but when my parents did the hike 30 minutes later, it was all covered in clouds.

 

 

 

 

Luckily, it stayed sunny in Twizel most of time we were there, so even though it was snowing in the mountains, we had nice weather. Emmeline enjoyed an old school playground, Nick and I enjoyed some coffees overlooking the mountain. Our house was great for playing and relaxing!

 

 

 

Salmon farming is very popular in this area, so we visited a farm where Emmeline got to feed the fish and we bought some salmon to cook at home. It was delicious, though deboning it turned out to be a tedious process without the right tools!

 

The morning we left to go back to Queenstown, the foothills and mountains that had no snow just a day before were covered in snow, which made for some beautiful photos. As we drove through the pass toward Queenstown, we encountered quite the snow storm, with snow accumulating quickly! We are glad to have made it safely to Queenstown (with a quick stop in Wanaka for lunch and to see "the tree"). Apparently, it is quite rare for Queenstown to get snow, especially this late!