However, this particular I-site was unlike any other that I've seen before; it was like a historical museum! It had cool exhibits, sweet artwork and impressive architecture, plus really interesting historical facts about Mount Cook and the people who have climbed it, and it even had a small movie theatre with a neat video on Mount Cook. After exploring the I-site for a little while, we finally made our way outside to actually go take a look at Mount Cook itself. We saw numerous gorgeous mountains around us, but as it turned out, none of them were Mount Cook. We found out there were different access points that you could either drive or walk to in order to get solid views of Mount Cook & the surrounding glaciers. We chose to drive toward the Tasman Glacier. Even though it was only a few minutes drive away from the I-site, the views when we got to the parking lot near the Tasman Glacier were sooo much more noteworthy. Little did we know, it was to get even better from there. We took a zig-zaggy walking trail up some relatively unsturdy rocks toward the viewing point for Tasman Glacier.
I can honestly say that when we got to the top, we were in no way prepared for the unbelievable views that would be surrounding us; we were all completely taken aback & just stood there in awe. Every direction you looked, there was 360 degrees of scenery that simply took your breath away. Pictures just cannot do it justice, not even close. We all sat there for a good 20-30 minutes in the crisp mountain air staring at the snow-topped mountains (including Mount Cook), the mostly-melted glacier, and the green mountains in the distance. It was one of those moments where you could not fully fathom the beauty that you were experiencing. If it hadn't been for the sun starting to go down, we would have stayed much longer. As it was though, we had to get back down the rocky trail before dark. The original plan was to stay in Mount Cook for the night before going to Lake Tekapo the next day, but we had learned at the I-site earlier that the hostels were really expensive in Mount Cook. Therefore, we all decided to go ahead & go to Lake Tekapo a day early. It was about an hour & a half drive away, so it was just after 7:00 pm by the time we got to what we thought was the only hostel in town.
Unfortunately, when we went to the hostel reception window, we found out they'd closed just 5 minutes prior...oops. We hadn't pre-booked anything, so once again poor planning was problematic. A note was posted on a board next to the reception window though saying that the owners lived across the street & could be contacted in case of an emergency. Arash considered our dilemma an emergency, and he was supported by a girl who was staying at the hostel. She told us, "Oh yeah, just go over. They seriously just left, so they won't mind." Yeahhh...they were wrong. Arash had volunteered to be the one to go to the house. He had apparently interrupted the lady whilst cooking, she was quite angry, stomped her way back over to the hostel across the street, then told Arash that she could book us all into a dorm room, but we'd have to be very quiet all evening because there were some older people staying in the hostel & she'd promised them a quiet night.
When Arash came back to the car & told us about her 'offer,' we weren't exactly thrilled and decided to try to find alternative accommodation. Arash went back to her & said we came to a group decision that we would not be staying there due to the 'minimal noise requirement.' Haha. I'm sure that didn't ease her anger much, but I mean, it was Sontsa's birthday for crying out loud! Next stop was a small hotel in town. Of course, hotels are generally more expensive. The boys therefore went inside to do some sweet talking to the woman receptionist to try to get us a deal; it worked. The only downfall was that a hotel room wouldn't have a kitchen & Arash wanted to do a nice birthday dinner (The fact that it wouldn't have a kitchen didn't even cross mine & Sontsa's minds since we don't exactly do any cooking haha).
However, the hotel receptionist also told the boys about some other hostels that were in the area. We went to one that she'd mentioned & it was a success! The four of us even got our own dorm room, so that was perfect. Arash immediately started cooking up a storm: slow-cooked chicken, fluffy rice, and seasoned vegetables with spices & herbs. When he served us our delicous-looking plates, he said, "Oh, and make sure you don't eat the bay leaves." That's right...the boy carries bay leaves around with him to season his food! Haha..love it. He actually carried around an entire bag filled with about 10-15 different spices, herbs & seasonings. As expected, the meal was exquisite! We all had such a fun night celebrating Sontsa's birthday, chatting, having lots of laughs, and even doing some star-gazing in the courtyard of the hostel. The Lake Tekapo area is known for having high visibility of all the stars, so the night sky was impressively illuminated. We didn't go to sleep until very, very late the next morning. It was a day for the books!
Cheers,
Ash
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