Mt. Cook and Tasman Glacier

This weekend I went out to Mt. Cook (Aoraki) with some friends on a delightful trip full of classic road trip sing-a-longs and life stories. We ended up getting to the small town in the afternoon, so the woman at the Department of Conservation suggested we stay in a hostel instead of attempt to hike up in the partial darkness-which we would find out the next day was a more than necessary precaution. With our extra time, we drove about five minutes to go on a short hike to Tasman glacier and lake. We got to see icebergs, crazy cool water, and a wonderful sunset. 

The next morning we went on a day hike up to the Mueller hut and realized that hiking this in the dark would have been positively terrifying, but hiking in the day was quite fun. We got to find our way through snow and rocks all the way up to a view of the valley, mountains, and glaciers....Let me tell you, though, it was a bit windy. And when I say a bit I actually mean a lot (yes, I do know that I could just backspace and fix that, but now it's going to feel like I'm actually talking to you). We actually got knocked over a couple of times by the wind, but, hey, what fun is climbing a mountain if the elements don't screw with you a bit? 

Also, the way back down was just wonderful. Because at those steep snowy parts, we slid down on our butts-just as much fun as sledding and only slightly painful when you went over a rock garden (butt bruises are totally worth it). And then we got to hop down all of those stairs that we went on the way up and realized that our slight exhaustion at the top was totally validated. Then, we headed back to Dunedin to rest our legs and eat some warm food. 

I've included a video that I've made with the help of Grayson's GoPro that he left for me to borrow (yes, nice little brothers do exist)...hopefully it's not too small and shows some of the wonderful things I've been up to these past couple of weeks!