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New Zealand Travelog #20
Mt. Cook National Park, NZ - Sun, 14 Apr 2024, 9:50am
Yesterday after hiking the Hooker Valley trail we were pretty tired. And hungry. And wet. We peeled off our wet clothes in the room, taking care to hang everything so that it'd dry out by this morning. Hawk showered before dinner, I waited until after.
For dinner we drove to a small lodge grill a few blocks away. We both ordered pizzas as that was almost the only appetizing thing on the menu. The pizzas weren't great.... They were kind of like something straight out of a Chef Boyardee boxed mix. But we had some serious taste amplification going so we wolfed them down.
I was in bed ready to fall asleep around 8 if not before. I've gone to bed early most nights this week. It's partly how I'm dealing with the timezone change (19 hours) and partly how I'm timing my schedule to maximize daylight hours for doing outdoors things.
Speaking of the great outdoors, we had such a good time idling by our balcony overlooking Mt. Cook yesterday that we decided to do it again.
Though this time we've lazed through the morning hours by the windows not so much to enjoy the view— or the non-view as the photo above shows— as to wait out the weather hoping it would get better for hiking. See, the point of hiking for me isn't the exercise, it's to see the beauty. And in conditions like this picture shows, well, there's little to see. Waterfalls? Snow-capped mountains? The tallest peak within 5,000 miles? They're all literally in this picture, you just can't see them. 😡
Well, in the few hours we've been relaxing by the windows, weather conditions have gotten a bit better. The clouds have lifted... to about 1,000 feet above the valley floor. The hotel's checkout time of 10am is almost here, so we've packed our bags to get rolling.
Mt. Cook National Park, NZ - Sun, 14 Apr 2024, 9:50am
Yesterday after hiking the Hooker Valley trail we were pretty tired. And hungry. And wet. We peeled off our wet clothes in the room, taking care to hang everything so that it'd dry out by this morning. Hawk showered before dinner, I waited until after.
For dinner we drove to a small lodge grill a few blocks away. We both ordered pizzas as that was almost the only appetizing thing on the menu. The pizzas weren't great.... They were kind of like something straight out of a Chef Boyardee boxed mix. But we had some serious taste amplification going so we wolfed them down.
I was in bed ready to fall asleep around 8 if not before. I've gone to bed early most nights this week. It's partly how I'm dealing with the timezone change (19 hours) and partly how I'm timing my schedule to maximize daylight hours for doing outdoors things.
Speaking of the great outdoors, we had such a good time idling by our balcony overlooking Mt. Cook yesterday that we decided to do it again.
Though this time we've lazed through the morning hours by the windows not so much to enjoy the view— or the non-view as the photo above shows— as to wait out the weather hoping it would get better for hiking. See, the point of hiking for me isn't the exercise, it's to see the beauty. And in conditions like this picture shows, well, there's little to see. Waterfalls? Snow-capped mountains? The tallest peak within 5,000 miles? They're all literally in this picture, you just can't see them. 😡
Well, in the few hours we've been relaxing by the windows, weather conditions have gotten a bit better. The clouds have lifted... to about 1,000 feet above the valley floor. The hotel's checkout time of 10am is almost here, so we've packed our bags to get rolling.
