Cloudpiercer

We listened to Christmas music on the drive towards the Southern Alps, including a mix of comforting favorites and modern remakes. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” seemed fitting as we approached the snow-capped mountains. The road traced the Waitaki River upstream, offering splendid scenery including a few dams and the resulting lakes.

We stayed in the town of Twizel, pronounced “twy-zel” (not “twizzle”!) Our accommodation was probably the largest AirBNB of the trip, with 3 bedrooms, a spacious living room, a full kitchen, and a yard. As the wind whipped through the neighborhood, the metal roof panels would pop and pang. The laundry clothesline turned into a giant pinwheel, spinning in the wind and flinging a large portion of my clothing into the grass.

For dinner, I made a round of fried rice, with tofu instead of scrambled egg and a choice of tempeh or chicken for protein. It was a satisfying meal, and we even opened the Forrest rose! This bottle from Marlborough had been tagging along with us for the entire trip around the South Island. I also tried a Tui beer, a strong 7.2% lager with a confident tui on the can. It was delicious and became my favorite New Zealand beer!

​The next day, we took a day trip into Mt. Cook / Aoraki National Park. It was a spectacular drive, hugging the edge of the sparkling blue Lake Pukaki as the sharp profile of Mt. Cook / Aoraki became larger and large. Some say that the name Aoraki means “cloud piercer” in Maori – if true, a brilliant name for the tallest peak in New Zealand. However, on this particular day, there were no clouds to pierce. We were blessed with wide open blue skies, apart from a few stray clouds blowing over from the West Coast, but even these clouds kept their distance from Aoraki.

​We followed the popular Hooker Valley track, which started at the White Horse Hill camping area and took a relatively flat 3 mile path to Hooker Lake. The views were stunning! Depending on the curve of the path, the backdrop was either Mt. Cook or its neighbor Mt. Sefton. We loved the sharp double peak of Mt. Cook, and the ice shelves and waterfalls on Mt. Sefton. The track passed both a gray glacial lake and a gray river of smooth rocks. Both were a fitting foreground for these mountain scenes. The track also had three suspension bridges, that bounced under the weight of the hikers and were exposed to the full force of the wind. We experienced some mild “sea legs” after each crossing. We had our lunch at the lake overview, holding onto our sandwiches and bags to prevent them from blowing away.

Our second hike was essentially a staircase to a viewpoint overlooking the Tasman Glacier. The lake formed by the recession of the glacier was a surprising shade of bright blue. Since we couldn’t see the lake until reaching the very top, it was a wonderful dramatic reveal. The glacier itself was visible in the distance, and while its body was camouflaged with a dirt covering, its shelf was a discernable stripe adjacent to the lake. Of course, it was tragic to see how much it had receded. In 1990, the lake didn’t yet exist – it’s now several kilometers long. Meanwhile, the blasts of wind pushed us sideways, and claimed the hat of a fellow tourist.

Our itinerary for the next day had one simple activity listed – “enjoy the mountains.” We drove to the edge of Lake Pukaki and hiked along the ridge, enjoying the blue water and mountain scenery. The trail was completely deserted and ended at a cute little kettle lake filled with gray water. The hillsides were covered with yellow-brownish tussock, animated by the wild wind. On the way back, we stopped at a visitor center where I tried salmon sashimi from an alpine salmon farm in the area. I marveled at the concept of alpine salmon, the freshness, and the low price – while the others marveled at the views.

​Some of our other meals in Twizel included lentil and quinoa bowls from chef Rachel and pasta and veggies from chef Grant. We discovered that Twizel was large enough to have two separate Four Square grocery stores, only a block apart. It was good to have down time for calling home and travel planning. Twizel is part of the Mackenzie Dark Sky sanctuary, but we didn’t end up stargazing because the sunset was so late and the nights were cold and/or cloudy.

On the drive out of town, we stopped at Lake Tekapo. It was pretty, with the Mt. John observatory perched on the left and the Southern Alps in the distance, but it fell short compared to Lake Pukaki, so we didn’t linger. What caught our attention was actually a field that was bursting with mountain lupins. We stopped to admire the purples and pinks, as far as the eye could see. I tried making a “snow angel” pose but it turned out hilariously bad – like I was passed out on the ground!

​The route to Christchurch crossed the sprawling Canterbury plains. It was one of the longer drives, at 3.5 hours, and Vincent once again led the charge. At one point, a small critter darted across the road ahead of us – the infamous stoat! New Zealand’s #1 public enemy had finally been sighted.

^ the GIF that I made to capture our reaction to seeing the lupin