Awesome Aoraki National Park

Tuesday 5 May

The moon was still visible above the mountains as I grabbed my trainers and pulled on some extra layers at 7.20am and set off up to Kea Point, ostensibly to watch the sunrise.

Turned out I was a little late as the rosy glow of sunrise crept over the peak of Mt Sefton as I climbed the path to the lookout - and by the time I got there, it had morphed to a golden glow then pure white snow against a blue sky. I sat at one with nature for a while, shared my view with Nickie & Caroline, my sister, on video calls then wandered back to Banjo.

Louis had decided to tackle Sealy Tarns again, 2000+ steps up the side of the mountain, so set off around 9.30am. You can't really see the track on the green hillside in the pic below, but it just zigzags up and up and up to the tarns and then an advanced track carries on from there to the Mueller Hut, though this track is under advisement at present as there is risk of avalanche. The incline is not always obvious in photos, but rest assured, once you hit the stairs about 500m along the track, it gets pretty damn steep.

I got regular updates on his progress and was impressed when he made it to the top about 90minutes later. Views from up there looked fabulous! From up here he could see over the vast moraine hills along the edge of the Mueller Glacier Lake to the Hooker Glacier Lake beyond; when the Hooker Valley track fully reopens in spring, you can walk all the way to the Hooker Glacier Lake, but for now you just have to climb the Sealy Tarns track for a birds eye view.

I set off up the track about an hour into his descent, to meet him on his way down - he was pretty sweaty & hot but justifiably chuffed at his morning’s achievement. I managed around 500m or so before he rounded a corner and I almost gave him a hug - until I noted how sweaty he was!!! Walking back to Banjo we crossed the shady patches above the White Horse Hill Camp and were shocked to see that there was still quite a thick frost in the shade of the mountains, and the air was significantly damper and colder.

Lunch back at Banjo (pumpkin soup with bacon and pumpernickel bread) and we were visited by a wee rifleman or tītitipounamu bird and a miromiro tomtit, the latter flitted around us and the bushes for ages 🖤🤍💛. The rifleman was there and then gone in the blink of an eye, but the miromiro even landed on our gin bar as we were having lunch, and then hung out in the bushes and on the rocks down the edge of the camp for ages.

After lunch we hopped in ELLAMY and drove over to Tasman Valley to explore around the glacier lake and river outlet. The track up to the lookout was quite busy but we detoured out to the end of the lake where the river flows out, eventually emptying into Lake Pukaki.

It was cool seeing a bunch of icebergs floating on the lake which had flaked off from the glacier. Many of them retained their glorious glacial aquamarine colour when the sun shone through the ice - and while some were just a metre or two long, others were quite substantial.

From the Hermitage you can book a boat to take you out on the lake for iceberg close ups - it was only when you saw these boats loaded with a dozen or more passengers that you understood the scale of the larger icebergs. The boats whizzing around checking them out looked so cool - it's on our wish list, but a tad over our budget!

We watched the sun disappear behind the Alps and felt so lucky to be able to return to this beautiful place again - our third visit. The blue light over the shady end of the lake was gorgeous, but the temperature dropped rapidly without the sun on us. There were quite a few large exposed rocks as the lake level was quite low. The white powder in the rocks is deposits of glacial flour which give the water its grey green tinge up here and aquamarine glow in the bigger lakes downstream.

We drove back to White Horse Hill over the iconic caged bridge which crosses the Hooker River and were quite shocked to see that there was some intense work going on down where we previously walked to see the river and the gulls - with a sign saying "Danger - Asbestos" - yikes! Turns out there is an old landfill site there and hazardous materials have been identified and brought to the surface by flooding and erosion.

Dinner back in Banjo (bangers and mash with a side order of WILTY on the laptop), but no epic sunset this evening; instead a few gusty blasts of wind which continued to rock the caravan overnight. Power was low as solar was hard to capture, so we decided to change plans and head out in the morning, necessitating a bit of a planning session before bed.