Mount Cook

 New Zealand's highest point is called Mount Cook, and is located on the other side of the mountain range where we went hiking on the Fox Glacier. Actually the Fox Village was closer to the peak of Mount Cook, than the mount Cook Village on the East side of the mountain.
We passed some of the rivers from the glacier rivers and lakes, quite amazing how blue that water is once the silt has settled, so clear it is almost unbelievable.
The entry to the Mount Cook National park looks quite good and dramatic. It is a quite flat valley next to a big lake, with the mountains raising in the back ground. Actually the mount cook is not that high, only 3754 meters, but it is far enough South that there is snow on the top all year long and it is cold up there. In Peru we went to over 4200 on foot crossing the Dead Woman's pass, and up to 4900 at some volcano lookout.
We found a hostel for the night and began to prepare for the next day's trek. First we went to the DOC office who would have some information for us to what trails were open, which were not and what to look out for. We were interested in taking a loop trail instead of the regular up and down the same, the women working there got kind of mad at us and told us not to do it. We then talked to a male ranger who asked a few questions and told us what we would have to be able to do going that way, very different approaches I would say.
We also needed some food, but were kind of surprised when we found out there is no supermarket in Mount Cook village, only two places that sell stuff, and very limited and expensive selection of goods. We bought only what we needed, if it had not been that expensive, we would have brought more for sure.
Next morning we woke up, had breakfast and packed our stuff. We jumped in the car, drove to the parking lot for trekking, it was now 12:01. We looked at each other at both agreed that we were actually hungry already now. So we drove back to the restaurant to get a lunch before trying again. Exactly 1 hour later we were back at the parking lot and this time ready to go for real.
The mountain was quite a view from the bottom, and it didn't get any worse as we got higher up. The first 30-45 minutes up was steep incline and mostly on stairs built to prevent erosion of the path. When it has been raining, this path has obviously been carrying a lot of water, overtime making some very steep passages almost impossible to climb. At times, we got a little bored walking up the normal path and chose some of the more challenging ones, some of which proved a little too much or in some cases, rather stupid.
Halfway up we had lunch number 2, that was just what I needed and I was ready to climb for another few hours. The young Canadian had become tired though and wanted a nap. Young people nowadays!
I continued on my own with some music on and found a good pace for the probably most interesting trek in a long time. Over huge cracks in the rocks, big enough to disappear into them, next to deep drop offs and over patches of snow, it was pretty cool. On top of that the best view in the house.The last part of the trail to the top was in loose gravel, quite difficult to walk in at times, but finally made it all the way up.
The Canadian was nowhere to be found, so I continued towards tonight's hotel room which was going to be in the Mueller Hut at 1820 meters. I didn't have any problems with the altitude like when we were in Peru, that was nice.
After walking for about 20 minutes on the ridge and then down on the back to a plain, I could finally see the hut, looked kind of nice from here and especially since it was the destination and had water and a place to sit. The hut was already full of people, mostly a party of Polish of around 20 people, a couple of Israelis and Germans as well, nobody talking history though!
Ryan finally showed up, but of course from a totally different ridge than what he should have followed, going the same way most other people do is not for him.
For dinner we had bought some pre-made pasta dishes, but they felt like nothing at all, so we bought two, each! When we started to cook, we read on the package that the finished food would serve 4 people. We had bought 4 each, so we were going to each 16 peoples food? On top of that we had some spicy salami with us to dump into the pasta for taste. It worked out great.
But what you eat, has to come out and up there on the mountain, there are no shit and flush facility. If it is so urgent that you would have to do it on the mountain itself, then it is with use of the poo pot, a container with a screw lid on that you carry your "output" in. At the hut though, they had some very basic toilets, with very vivid description of how to use it, haha
After a long nights sleep, it was time to climb the highest mountain on the ridge, but it was really foggy in the morning, as we woke up in the clouds. The clouds came and disappeared all the time, so at times we were actually above the clouds with baking sun on us, a few moments later in the clouds and light rain, interesting.
We were running along the ridge with a very limited visibility, slippery rocks here and there, vertical drops to to left and then the right. Again patches of snow with ??? behind it. This was getting a little too hairy for McSmarte, so at 1980 meters I called it quits. Couldn't see 10 meters ahead of me. I don't know if that makes me a chicken, but so be it. If the weather had been clear and I could have seen where we were going, maybe then I could have reassessed the risks, but at that point I thought enough is enough.

Ryan continued the last 10 minutes to the top, apparently I had been very close. He shot a few photos and then came back down.
I am not sure it would have made a that big difference in my life if I had made it to the top or not, but I have other plans in life that I want to try out.
We made it back to the hut and had some lunch. The last cans of tuna and bread. Sitting there eating we find a big patch of mold in the middle of the bread. Nice. We only had chocolate and 2 granola bars left, that became lunch instead.

We started the descend the way we came up, that turned out to be quite a challenge to do downward, sliding 1-2 feet on every step on the very steep slope. That's when I came to think of the two emergency drinks I had in the backpack, 2 huge Red Bulls. We had one each and flew down the mountain. Yeah.
This was the nicest places I had been in New Zealand, hands down. Another night on the mountain would have been nice, but time is running faster than it should.