New Zealand – Mt. Cook Mackenzie

January 13, 2024

For the next four days I will be traveling the South Island of New Zealand by bus through the back roads and small towns. This adventurer will push the boundaries of this introvert but I hope to see lots of interesting landscape and interact with local people.

The day started early with a trip from my hotel to the bus station at 6 am. As I looked around the bus station at the other passengers I began to doubt my choices as they were all either Chinese or young students, not exactly what I was expecting. The route today will take me from Christchurch which is on the east coast to Queenstown on the west coast a journey of about 12 hours.

Shortly we left the city and were immersed into the beautiful farm lands and rolling hills filled with sheep and cows. About every hour and a half we stopped at some small town toilet facilities . Then about noon the views of Mt. Cook came into view and I was in awe of the beauty of the snow capped peaks. We stopped at the lodge for a couple of hours and I was did a hike in the trails surrounding the lodge. Definitely a place that you could spend a week at. A groups of students on the bus got off at the hostel with large backpacks ready for adventure!!!

Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, Its height, is listed as 12,218 feet). It sits in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island.

Way too soon it was time to get back on the bus to continue our journey to Queenstown.

We continue to follow the Southern Alps range As we drove through the little towns the driver pointed out landmarks and provided some history of each of the little towns. I thought the giant fruit was hilarious!! At one stop they had a few sheep in the back and the one looked like he was mad or not having a great day. The ram was the first one that I had seen so of course I had to have his picture.

At the little cafes we stopped at there were meat pies for takeout. This flaky crust pies are the New Zealand meal of choice and can be filled with meat and cheese of all type. No takeout burgers for kiwi’s!!!

The day went fast and as we pulled into Queenstown I was ready to explore the city in the remaining daylight hours!