Aoraki/Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand (12,218 ft or 3,754 m) |
On
our way from Paparoa National Park to Mount Cook National Park, we stayed
one night at the Jacksons Retreat Alpine Holiday Park sparkling clean
camping and cabin facilities. Like everywhere we checked in, we used
disinfecting wipes to scrub everything we might touch in our cabin, to minimize
coronavirus contagion risk for ourselves and others. But I couldn’t make myself
go in the community kitchen while others used it without physically distancing
themselves, so we stayed in our cabin for a dinner of cold groceries. For
breakfast, we went to microwave water in mugs before anyone else stirred awake.
For complete peace of mind, I chose a sponge bath in the cabin over a shower in
the shared building.
Before
dinner, we clambered through dense, dark rainforest up to a waterfall. At
sunset, noisy, bickering, flightless Wekas, as known by
their indigenous Māori name, or Woodhens (Gallirallus a. australis) chased
one another around the lawn. That night, we couldn’t pass up the chance to see
glow worms, but we agreed not to go back up the waterfall track and risk
twisting ankles. Instead we crawled under more civilized bushes and declared
success as soon as we spotted two uncertain, dim, bluish dots.
Lake
Pukaki and Aoraki/Mount Cook
|
At
Mount Cook Village, we checked into the YHA Aoraki Mount Cook youth hostel
private room we had reserved back when it was the only vacancy. We found the
wood-paneled interior attractive, but the shared bathrooms in need of cleaning,
not so much. We also learned from our twice-daily coronavirus online news check
that, beginning the next day, New Zealand was going to require all arriving
overseas visitors to self-isolate for 14 days. We were lucky to have arrived
before that!
In
the morning, hoping for a clean private bathroom, we searched online for a
vacancy at any other Mount Cook Village lodging. We found openings, probably
from cancellations due to the coronavirus. We promptly moved to the Aoraki
Court Motel, where our room with its own bathroom and kitchenette didn’t cost
very much more than the hostel room.
We
never cooked. Instead, we ate dinner early (5 p.m., to avoid crowds), at the
pub next door, Chamois. We used 70% isopropanol, two-square-inch wipes to disinfect
utensils and glasses—every one of the few times we ate out in New Zealand. My
salmon, flavorful and melt-in-the-mouth tender, and my husband’s lamb burger
were the best ever. The pub is named after Chamois (Rupicapra
rupicapra) the European wild mountain antelope, because in 1907, Austrian
Emperor Franz Joseph I donated some in exchange for New Zealand ferns and
lizards, and the chamois multiplied all over the Southern Alps.
Another
wildlife species also introduced near Mount Cook, as game for hunters, is the HimalayanTahr (Hemitragus
jemlahicus) or lion goat. We saw chamois and tahr only as stuffed specimens
at the Visitor Centre. But we saw an army of live Rabbits (Oryctolagus
cuniculus cuniculus) mowing lawns in Mount Cook Village, the descendants of
ancestors introduced in the 1800s as game and food. Rabbits are now considered
pests because they compete with livestock for pasture.
Sealy
Tarns Track
|
Aoraki/Mount
Cook
from
the Sealy Tarns Track
|
That
night, online news reported that Australia, our next destination, was also
going to require visitors to self-isolate for 14 days, beginning the next day. If
true, it would make our visit impractical. In the morning, a government web
page provided official confirmation, so we worked breathlessly as a team to cancel
all our Australian reservations for rental cars, ferry crossings, domestic
flights, and rooms. When done, we couldn’t wait to head outside for the rest of
the day.
Maukatua/Mount
Sefton (3,151 m or 10,338 ft)
Snow
dirty beige with ash from the 2019 Australia wildfires
As
seen from the Hooker Valley Track
|
Female
Paradise Duck
(Tadorna
variegata)
|
Male
Paradise Duck
(Tadorna
variegata)
|
To
be continued…
FOR
MORE INFO
Join
Cathy Mayone’s Mount Cook adventures in her New Zealand post about the SouthIsland .
Caroline, your descriptions are so real I feel as if I've taken a vacation! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnd I"m sooo glad you were doing all the safety measures!