Omarama - Lake Pūkaki - Aoraki/Mount Cook - Lake Tekapo

Markus had booked a two-hour glider flight in Omarama from Germany to get a view of the Alps. Unfortunately, it had rained, which led to the cancellation of the flight. However, since Omarama was on our way, we decided to make a short stop at the airfield and even caught the pilot who was actually about to head back to Queenstown. He showed us his glider and asked if we wanted to wait, as it might clear up after all. More than a one-hour flight would certainly not have been possible due to the lack of thermals, and that wouldn’t have been enough to reach the Alps. Therefore, we continued our journey (which was the right decision because it started raining again shortly after).

We spent the night at a huge freedom camping site by Lake Pūkaki. We arrived relatively early and secured a spot with a great view of the lake (and the mountains, had they not been hidden in the clouds). We read and took a walk. Markus actually wanted to go fishing there, but all the shops, especially those where you could get fishing gear, were already closed.

The next day we wanted to hike on the Ball Hut Road at Mount Cook. Since we were uncertain about the weather, we checked in at the DOC center and learned that there had been a landslide in one spot, which could apparently be easily bypassed. So we set off hiking, and after a good hour, when we looked at the Tasman Lake and the glacier from a viewpoint, it started to drizzle for the first time.

We continued walking despite that and soon reached the spot with the landslide. There was indeed a path, which was partially equipped with ropes that you could hold onto. However, I had imagined 'easily bypassing' a bit differently..

After another 2 hours of hiking, we were 3 km further, but we were also pretty wet, and we were moving really slowly because we kept having to walk over rocky fields. There were still another 2 km to our destination, but according to the GPS, we were already supposed to be there by now. With heavy hearts, we decided to turn back.

When we finally reached the car, we were not only wet but also pretty cold. So we warmed up over the next two hours before heading to Lake Tekapo. We had booked a star-gazing tour for the evening, coincidentally it was new moon. The next challenge was to get Markus's shoes dried. While I still had dry spare shoes, Markus only had flip-flops available. Thanks to the toilet paper technique and the car heater, Markus's shoes were almost completely dry by the time we got ready for the star gazing shortly after 11 PM. Unfortunately, the star gazing also got canceled due to cloud cover.

The next morning we had breakfast in Lake Tekapo, took the obligatory picture with the Church of the Good Shepherd and Aoraki/Mount Cook in the background (with the mountains in the clouds for us), and then we set off towards better weather.