Another point of view... in Aoraki / Mount Cook

After saying a bittersweet goodbye to our rather poorly graffitied, campervan (seriously, wait until you see the pictures), we are now travelling to the north of the south island in a gold rental car. We seem to have all the luck when it comes to embarrassing vehicles.*

It’s a strange feeling being “allowed” to eat out instead of having to cook basic meals in the boot of the van, comparable to that feeling you get when you have a day off work on a Monday, and don’t quite know what to do with yourself. We almost felt guilty going to a restaurant for lunch earlier and having our food cooked for us by someone else! Not that it lasted very long - we were ordering jugs of cider to wash down our roast dinners in no time.

Even stranger is the fact that we can't look down at the scenery anymore… I had forgotten how much closer to the ground you are in a car, and how much less you can see on winding roads that shape the cliff edges, where we now catch only the odd glimpse of the sparkling sea below.

This literal change in point of view has coincided with a change in our proverbial point of view, as conversations from about two weeks ago about how perfect everything is have changed to, well… how ridiculously perfect everything is. Let me explain:

We spent a couple of days in the Aoraka area of New Zealand, a national park just off the centre of the South Island, where we did the “Hooker Valley Track” hike towards the towering Mount Cook - New Zealand's tallest mountain. At the end of a ninety minute stroll, we were surprised to reach a murky lake full of enormous floating icebergs that almost looked as if a Giant had abandoned his glass of Baileys.**

Having to share this awesome sight with a dozen other tourists took a little bit of the charm away, but what really did it was the fact that the path to get there was so damn easy! Yes, every major tourist sight in New Zealand seems to have a rather convenient walkway carved out for tourists (I guess that’s what makes them major tourist sights), but this time we’re talking perfect wooden planks and signposts telling you the name of the contractors that have been hired to pave this path fit for a princess. Where was the challenge? I am by no means a professional trekker, but I like to feel as though I've earned the right to see a sight from a certain point of view. I don’t doubt that New Zealand is a trekker’s fantasy for those in search of a more serious meaningful hiking trip as opposed to the quickies we’ve been trying to get off on, but I guess I just expected all of the walks to be a bit more rugged and 'wild'. I hate to encourage the curse of traveller’s comparison, but I think the more exclusive, adventurous hikes in Nepal that we went on with locals perhaps set a standard for us.

Maybe making the country’s fairytale landscapes so accessible to everyone is what gives New Zealand its unbeatable status of King of the great outdoors. And maybe it’s just in the layperson’s nature to find fault when faced with perfection.

* apologies to anyone who has a gold car or was thinking of buying one.

** unfortunately photos of the iceberg filled lake were lost, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Or you can click here for an image provided by google

Guess what I found out in Aoraki / Mount Cook?

1. Aoraki/ Mount Cook is New Zealand’s tallest mountain, standing at 3724 metres (12,218 feet).

2. The English name of Mount Cook was given to the mountain in 1851 to honour Captain James Cook who first surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand in 1770. Captain Cook did not actually sight the mountain during his exploration.

3. Aoraki Mt Cook was known originally to the Maori as Aoraki. It was later renamed to Mount Cook, as mentioned above, but renamed to Aoraki / Mt Cook in 1998 to incorporate and preserve its Maori heritage.