Peachy Sunrise to Pastel Sunset, What a Day!

May 11
3 min read

Monday 4 May

The most glorious peachy pink tones over Ruataniwha & the Southern Alps, softened by morning mist as we awoke at 7.30am - in negative temperatures again!

Packed up and wandered down to Kay & Gavin’s Australis to say good bye as they were also off, heading down the Waitaki Valley; we were Aoraki bound, using our DOC pass to stay at the White Horse Hill site up there. Loved the headless tree monster we passed along the way!

Did a few chores in Twizel then hit the road under fabulous skies, waving as we passed Lake Wardell and thought we spotted the orange of the Leopards Go Wild caravan. There were hazy skies over Aoraki as we headed up along the west side of Lake Pukaki, but the mountains and valleys looking left out of my passenger window were crystal clear under largely blue skies. The glacial valleys and scree falls take me back to O'Level geography lessons back in the 1980s.

An hour or so later we inched through the ford into the campsite, did a 17 point turn and parked up in a sunny spot at the DOC site which was quite empty at this point. Grabbed a quick lunch then set off to walk the Hooker Track again - up to Mt Sefton Lookout as the bridges #2 & #3 are still being reconstructed. We had procrastinated a bit and didn't leave until about 2.45pm - not realising that the sun disappeared behind the Great Divide at around 3pm. We had only jut got to the Mueller Lake Lookout when the sun appeared to be hooked on the top of the Southern Alps for a few short minutes.

If you are wondering what Louis is doing in the photo of the bridge from the path, he is pulling the “special face”. Last time we came through here with the Fernandi I waited on these steps to get a shot of Louis, Nickie & Russ on the bridge, then this older Asian couple stopped here and she pulled this exact face while he took the photo… bizarro!

We had a few minutes to explore alongside the Hooker River and up to the edge of the Mueller Lake as the sun gradually dropped behind the mountains, casting us all into shadow. The stones down here are all covered in a white powder, I think it is the glacial flour which creates the reflective sparkling colour of the glacial fed lakes and rivers. Spotted a miromiro, or tomtit, just after the bridge, but no sign of any kea sadly.

We hiked on through the cooler air up to the Mt Sefton Lookout by the end of the track. Fascinating watching planes fly past leaving sharp vapour trails which gradually blow away. We watched what was likely a flight out of Queenstown flying past the mountain peaks - so cool! By the time we reached the lookout, the sharp vapour trail had fluffed out like a soft thing line of cloud.

It was quite busy up at the lookout - we watched a bunch of guys from Northern England who were trying to get a funny insta shot but it all went horribly wrong - cue lots of laughter!

We turned back at the Lookout and walked back along the somewhat cooler and very shady path as the sun was well gone by now. However the clouds above were fabulous and later as sun set over White Horse Hill Camp the sky was absolutely stunning.