Day 17 - Oamaru and Mt. Cook

We spent the morning walking around Oamaru and checking out all the cool buildings and Steampunk stuff.  This was a term I had never heard of before so check out the link if you are interested.  After our leisurely morning, we headed to Glen Tanner which was where we would stay in the Mt. Cook area.

An example of steampunk.  You could put $2 in and flames and sound effects occurred.  

This building was right across from our backpacker.  Example of steampunk in front.

Mt Cook with Lake Pukaki.  Beautiful

We headed straight for a hike when we arrived and we ran into a herd of sheep crossing the road.

They were everywhere.

We did the Hooker Valley hike which took you up to Hooker glacier.  It was a perfect day and beautiful hike.

These are chunks of the glacial ice floating down the river.

Matt skipped some stones in this water and I swear they skipped 15+ times.  It was amazing.  We assume that the water was more dense than normal because of all the glacial debris in the water.  We hung out hear for awhile and saw some Keas flying high overhead.  I soaked my feet in the freezing cold water.

A swing bridge they had just completed. 

This was a memorial for those that had died on the mountain.

Freda Du Faur (in the picture bottom left) was the first woman to climb Mt Cook on December 3rd (matt's birthday), 1910.

Lupin and Mt Cook.

After our hike, we headed back and made dinner and got ready for the next day's hike which Matt warned me may be our most challenging yet...