New Zealand Holiday pics - Lake Ohau and Mount Cook

Lake Ohau - South Island

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Over Christmas we fled the rain in Christchurch to stay at a lodge at lake Ohau. The Lake is in a long valley, and the lodge was at the far end of the valley, passed the lake. From there we did two day walks, or climbs, in between the rain storms.

The first was up Freehold stream, in the first section of photo's this took about 5 hours return.

We climbed to a Tarn, a small lake at the top. Despite the steepness the view was exhilarating, and worth the effort.

On another day we climbed Ram hill, a bluff of which is behind the lodge itself. This was labeled as an "easy half day walk" which turned into a hard slog. Again the view was amazing and well worth the effort.

Finally being driven away because of the rain we headed for home stopping for an afternoon at Mount Cook, and walking up to the Hooker Glacier. From there we had some amazing views of Mt Cook itself, as the cloud briefly parted to show the top in the last picture.

 Click to see the whole pic

 

 

The Lodge at the foot of a bluff of Ram Hill

Despite a day of rain there were numerous rainbows.

The lake at the lower end of the valley

A hill in the middle of the valley

Freehold valley A sidevalley we climbed up, looking back to the lake

After about 1 hour walking through the bush we break out to the sub alpine region

The view ahead was just as daunting as we had to climb to the right of the center

Up and up! Yup, it was a slog, having rocks covered by tussock made getting a footing difficult

It was hot! and steep

Looking back. We had come a long way from the valley below

further on... looking back again, (we did a lot of that)

Looking up again - rolling hills of bluffs

Looking back (we did a lot of this as it got steeper)

At last! A mountain tarn! (note the size of the people)

More vistas from the top, that red was real

Another day, another climb. This time up Ram Hill.

We started in the valley below

Higher and higher, the track started to peter out.

Looking back to the main valley, and the lake

Note the small road we came in on.

Yet another break, and another pic

we hit a scree slope, no track, just working our way up. The green bluff is behind the lodge

Still going up, Andy takes a pic

At last! The summit, Note Andy disappearing over the end

Looking to the bluff behind the lodge

I'm sitting because of the strong wind,

The way back has its challanges...

Another day, another walk. Up a swollen riverbank passed some snowmelt

Our destination, Hooker Glacier, with lake and floating ice.

In the end is Mt Cook itself.

A perfect pic. Mount Cook with a halo of cloud