Lots of rain and cold in Aoraki

The view of the mountain from the visitors center

After Lake Tekapo, we had a one night stay in Aoraki (Mt Cook). Aoraki is the original Maori name for the mountain, but one of the European explorers named it Mt Cook after Captain Cook. Which is actually a bit silly because Captain Cook never even saw the mountain during his exploration of New Zealand. But regardless, these days it goes by both names together, usually like "Mt Cook/Aoraki Village" rather than one or the other, which is kind of interesting.

Anyway, we had a one night stay in the village planned. And it truly was a village: there was a hostel, a basic hotel (where we stayed), and a slightly more upscale hotel (where the tour bus tourists stayed). Eating options were not much more varied than that, with about three choices if you didn't bring in your own food. There was a fuel pump in the village (not a gas station, but a fuel pump), but luckily we didn't have to have that experience since we'd filled up before leaving civilization.

Basically, if you're at Aoraki/Mt Cook, you're there to experience the mountain and that's it. Unfortunately for us, the weather did not cooperate in the slightest with us!

On our way to Aorkai/Mt Cook from Lake Tekapo, we drove by Lake Pukaki. It's the lake at the foothills of the mountain range, and just like Lake Tekapo, it's brilliantly blue.

Lake Pukaki

All the bus tourists were getting pictures with the statue of the tahr - which is a crazy mountain animal in the area. So we got our pictures made there too!

Driving into the mountains, the weather was clearly looking a bit different from the sunshine we were leaving.

Hmm... starting to look a bit grey...

And windy...

Yup, starting to look seriously bad

We were hopeful, though, that it would break up a bit and allow us to get a hike in, either late in the day or early the next morning. We stayed ready to go at a moments notice, but it was pretty obvious that we were going to find a way to spend some time differently. Luckily, our hotel had a lovely lodge area where we could watch the rain and see the clouds that the mountain was hiding behind!

When you can't go outside, you can practice with technology

There was also a really fabulous visitors center that we spent a few hours in. It had some really interesting exhibits about the history of the mountain, and my favorite part, how the mountain rescues work there. It's a pretty popular place for climbers to train for Mt Everest, so serious climbers visit every year, and of course have to be rescued every year too.

The main level of the visitors center - it was pretty spectacular

An exhibit that recreated the mountain huts that climbers stay in

Which incidentally, was a bit like the room T & I had! (The last one available when we booked!)

As we knew in our hearts, the weather didn't turn. We went for a warm, cozy dinner at at restaurant that was about 100 yards from our lodge. It was raining so hard and was so cold that Toby picked us up and drove us the 100 yards!

Don't worry, we still managed to find ice cream bars in the village

So our weather wasn't what we'd hoped for, but we still had a good day staying warm and watching the rain (and snow on the mountains)! Instead of hiking the next day, we drove back to Lake Tekapo and did our hiking there. On our way down from the mountain, we got a sign of the better weather to come!