Mount Cookiemonster

Day 2 at Lake Tekapo was again a day with clear blue skies. So I started the day with a morning walk to visit the famous church at the lake. It's nice but not that impressive. 

It was a perfect day to visit Mount Cook. Driving to Mount Cook was just stunning, Lake Pukaki is marvelous certainly with the mountain background.
Mount Cook Village is not that interesting, and the food prices are a little bit over the top. But then again the views once again are manificent. We (I ran into Chloe again) decided to do one of the walks there the Hooker Valley track (4 hours) and this was given the sunny day a really nice walk. Crossing 2 swing bridges I conquered my fear to use them. The reward was to see a lake in which broken parts of ice from the glacier were still floating. On the return trip we also visited Kea Point which provides a nice view on a mountain lake as well. In short it is really difficult to describe the beauty of the scenery. My tip just go there!
Mount Cook is called Aoraki by the Maori people, and they also mentioned that the mountain has a face. And indeed you can see some big peaces of snow resembling eyes and a nose and a mouth.

At the backpackers meeting nice people is really easy. Most of the visitors are laid back and relaxed people. At the first evening I met a nice dutch couple and during the second evening I met 2 relaxed Israeli guys.

That is actually the beauty of staying at backpackers you meet so many interesting people.