Tuesday, November 5th to Friday, November 8th - Days 56 to 59 - To Twizel and Mount Cook (Aoraki)
Drive from Christchurch to Twizel
We left Christchurch around 10am on Tuesday, November 5th - Election Day in the US (of course, it was still Monday, the 4th at home). We drove south for a while on Highway One, branching inland to head to Mount Somers on the "scenic inland route south on Highway 72. We stopped for coffee at Mount Somers, and for lunch at a funky roadside cafe. Munroe had a sausage roll while Deb took a sandwich with her for the car. We stayed on Highway 72 until Geraldine, a nice prosperous-looking community. There we took Highway 79 to Twizel, passing through scenic Lake Tekapo.
Unfortunately, low clouds shrouded the mountain chain to the west of us that we followed down, but shortly after Geraldine, we were able to catch a glimpse of the snow-capped Southern Alps.
Next stop lovely Lake Pukaki with its stunning turquoise water and crystal-clear on our way into Twizel.
We got to Twizel around 3:30pm - this looks like an odd and wide open frontier town. There is plenty of open space, and the roads are broad. It apparently was built in the 1960s to house workers employed on building the elaborate hydroelectric power system in the area. There are many dams, canals, etc.
Our place - booked on Booking.com and called Hallewell Haven (it's address was 5 Hallewell Street) was a nice three-bedroom place with a large yard. It was perfectly comfortable but lacked any charm whatsoever. Importantly, it had a nice flat-screen smart tv so we could get news coverage from a variety of online sources, including the CBC, Deutsche Welle, CNN, Al Jazeera, and ABC (US). This was important because we wanted to follow the election day coverage from the USA (not a great idea, as it turned out...).
After settling in we headed to the Four Square, a nice grocery store just around the corner and across the street. We picked up meat, wine, and some other staples and cooked a magnificent roast leg of lamb for dinner. The silverbeet here - not just in Twizel but all over New Zealand - and the asparagus are clearly in season and both are incredible, so we've been enjoying more than our share of both! And of course, the lamb is ridiculously good - tender, fresh, and affordable. Munroe would have this every day if possible!!
Election Day
Wednesday morning we were up and watching election coverage from about 8am NZ time - late election day morning in the US. We began the day with such high hopes, perhaps even expectations. What more could Trump have done to illustrate his abject and complete lack of qualifications for the office? The campaign was absolutely absurd - with Trump making daily - perhaps hourly - false accusations ('In his only debate with Kamala Harris, Trump falsely said: They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people who live there." - They being legal Haitian immigrants; the place being Springfield, Ohio. This hideous and divisive claim was false, of course, but it didn't stop him from repeating it throughout the campaign in his effort to whip up anti-immigrant fear.
As the day went on and the numbers started to roll in, it was apparent that Harris's optimistic, hopeful, unifying campaign wasn't going to prevail. Munroe made an emergency run to get more wine and to the 'bottle shop' to get a tonic for the evening - a nice Laphroaig single malt (only $10 NZ more expensive than regular blends). We both went to bed with heavy hearts - and we didn't know the half of it.
Tuning in on Thursday morning we found out that the sky had in fact fallen and Trump had not only taken the Presidency, but his sycophant enablers had also built up leads in the House and Senate races. Even days after the election votes were still being counted in the closest races, and gradually Trump seems to be slouching towards control in both houses. We both were absolutely gutted.
Mount Cook
The only thing to be done was to get out and take a hike - and that we did. We drove back to Lake Pukaki, We about 35 miles along the lake, flanked by snow-capped mountains on either side. The star of the show was Mount Cook (aka Aoraki). We were driving directly toward it and it was amazing to see it grow larger and more dominant as we neared.
We stopped at a Hilton resort on the northwestern end of Lake Pukaki and had a coffee in the "Sir Edmund Hillary" cafe - he had cut his teeth climbing these Southern Alps, including cresting Mount Cook, as he prepared to take on Mount Everest.
From the cafe, we drove to a hike that has been described in our guidebook as one of the most scenic in the country. It was (by New Zealand calculations, not ours) described as an easy 3-hour hike to a glacier at the foot of Mount Cook. Apparently, the hike wasn't just described in our Fromer's guide because when we got to the trailhead we had difficulty finding parking amongst all the camper vans, cars, and tour buses!
The trail itself was gorgeous and extremely easygoing - until, at least, we arrived after about 40 minutes, at a long suspension bridge that crossed high above a fast-moving glacial stream. Munroe went ahead and got across as quickly as he could - but Deb found the crossing even more traumatizing. Fear of heights - runs in the Scott family! We decided to press on - despite high winds that rushed down the gorge we were following, occasionally kicking up little dust storms. After another 20 minutes or so we encountered a second suspension bridge - too much for either of us. We turned around and - as we were heading back - we heard a guy say we were only about halfway there and that there were a total of 3 bridges! We both were happy with the decision to turn around - and we had enjoyed at least 2.5 hours of hiking in the glorious mountains. The crowds had thinned out as we went further along on our way out - and they thickened again as we returned. Apparently, we weren't the only ones not going for the full hike!
