Day 1 in Mount Aspiring National Park.
As the start of the tramp is from a car park in the middle of nowhere, we decided to book a shuttle in to the park, leaving the car in Wanaka. We were very pleased with our level of planning to arrange this.
When we arrived, however, we found a large car park with flushing loos, and lots of people. It turns out that the very beginning of the walk into Aspiring is a very popular day walk, and the weather was so nice that the whole of Wanaka was out.
And who could blame them? The sky was a flawless blue, and it was only a 90 minute climb to great views of the Rob Roy glacier, which was calving ice falls from the lower face with loud cracks, booms and crashes.
Leaving the vicinity of the glacier meant also leaving the hoards of day trippers (shame!), and we walked for 10k along a beautiful river, which if you discounted the vivid green-blue of the river and the ludicrous glacier-clad mountains, could have been a scene from rural England. It even came complete with cows and sheep.
So we are now at the Aspiring Hut, with a bed under huge picture windows with the view shown in the last photo below.
Note, some of the geological features were recorded specially for Samuel.
I am grateful for your consideration. The topography of car parks is very stimulating ;)
ReplyDeleteThough, despite your continued travels around what looks suspiciously like Middle-Earth, I note there are no Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves or Orcs in evidence. Nect you'll be telling me they're not real....
Ahh, well the hobbits all live on the north island, so we haven't seen any yet. There are plenty of dwarfs, but they are usually on my side of the camera, offering helpful tips on composition and exposure. The elves are a vain bunch and refuse to be photographed without at least 3 hours in the Weta makeup department, and quite frankly, I'm rather relieved about the absence of orc hordes!
ReplyDeleteAh well, glad to hear they're still around. I thought they might have all vanished or that the films weren't documentaries....
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