Chasing Mount Cook

Just when we think our trip to New Zealand can't get any better, this beautiful country surprises us all over again.

We have been chasing the elusive Mount Cook for much of our stay here. It is frequently shrouded in cloud and very difficult to see.

Last night though, we found ourselves staying in a bed and breakfast home stay at the foot of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman in Fox Glacier township, on the west coast of South Island. Called Reflections, even on our arrival in the rain yesterday evening, the property lived up to its name. It had a lovely garden with an ornamental pond which reflected everything around it.

Then the pleasure was complete when we woke up this morning to gloriously clear weather and those two mountains complete and visible and perfectly reflected in bright sunlight in our host's pond.

                                    

We moved further up the coast to Hokitika during the day and then this evening, on the beach at sunset we saw them again, gentle silhouettes against an orange sky.

        

        

Following advice, in the twilight, we walked over the road to see gloworms in a dark rocky dell surrounded by trees. They increased in number and brightness as the light levels fell until there were hundreds of them all around us, fine points of blueish light in the gloom.

Surely tomorrow really can't get any better?