At Last, Mount Cook!

When I was in New Zealand in 2004, I drove within view of Mt. Cook -- the highest peak in New Zealand, and the peak that Sir Edmund Hilary trained on for his Mt. Everest summit -- 3 times. Well, fourth time is the charm! At first, my dad and I were afraid that the cloud cover over the Southern Alps was going to obstruct our view again, but the cloud-gods pulled through for us. No joke, the lake water is the color you see (online it seems to be duller than my computer monitor) -- I remember someone saying there is something in the glacier run-off that causes it to be turquoise in color, probably sediment of some sort. We will be starting the Milford Track tomorrow (2 January here, 1 January for all you Americans), so I will not be posting for 4 days. It looks as though (knock on wood) tomorrow is going to be the worst weather-wise. Happy New Year!