Sandfly Bay

On Sunday 18. October Marcell and I drove out to Sandfly Bay on the Otago Peninsula, supposedly one of the most scenic beaches around Dunedin. 

The way down to the beach led us over lush green fields with heaps of sheep.

View onto Sandfly Bay from a slightly elevated viewpoint. The way down to the beach merged here from a former path through verdurous grasslands to a steep and sandy way through sand dunes. 

The first of many seals we would encounter that day.

Sandfly Bay - definitely one of the most staggering and breath-taking beaches on the Otago Peninsula. 

Two seals basking in the sun, shoveling a handful of sand onto their backs every now and then to protect them from the sun. 

Another grown-up seal seeking a little refreshment in the cold water of the ocean. 

The seals were extremely lazy that day and had nothing else in mind than sleeping at the beach all day long. Luckily they weren´t shy at all and we could get as close as a meter.

I´m not sure what that seal´s gesture´s supposed to mean. A tender welcome? Or maybe a ´get the fu** away from here´? Anyway, dawn was already approaching and we decided to head back to the car-park. But not without encountering another 10 seals or so en route back.

A last view back to the beautiful scenery of Sandfly Bay. What a bummer that it is so far out on the Peninsula. Otherwise I´d come here way more often!

Mount Cook

On Friday the 9. October Marcell, Sylvain, Mael, the four french girls Amelie, Naomi, Estelle and Elise, and I departed from Dunedin to visit one of the most stunning places on the South Island of New Zealand: Mount Cook and its surrounding lakes Pukaki and Tekapo. As some of the girls had classes until 11, we decided to split up and the three guys and I started at 9 while the girls left Dunedin at 11:30 and would meet us later at the camping site in the Mt Cook National Park. 

Our first stop was a lookout point at Lake Pukaki from where you could not only marvel at the crystal clear lake (I have never seen a lake as clear as this one!) but also the snow covered Mount Cook and its adjacent glaciers:

I´m not sure what I´m trying to do here but what I do know is that my flatmate Sylvain in the background was flirting with a Chinese girl we met at the lookout point. Thanks and copyrights to Sylvain at this point for taking all these staggering pictures! Cheers (flat)mate!

We arrived at the camping site at around 2 pm and we decided to do a little hike until the girls would catch up with us. So we packed some snacks and drinks into our backpacks and left for the Hooker Valley Track.

View down the valley towards Lake Pukaki, from where we came. As you can see in the photo the region around Mt Cook (Central Otago & Canterburry) is very arid and has a very distinct but nevertheless beautiful and staggering flora.

As we continued our hike we slowly approached the mountains and got some breath-taking views of the glaciers.

We took a short break at this little creek and enjoyed the tranquil and peaceful atmosphere of this terrific place.

Me trying to catch a light ray.

Marcell posing in the middle of the creek that feeds the molten snow from the glaciers into Lake Pukaki.

Our path led us over swing bridges and boardwalks towards Mt Cook and the glacier lake at its foot.

We finally reached the end of our track at the foot of Mt Cook and were rewarded with a mind-blowing scenery!

A block of glacier-ice that I salvaged from the lake after building a path by putting small rocks on top of each other to reach the ice without getting wet. Took me quite some time to get out far enough to reach the ice, but I did it! 

Marcell and me in front of Mt Cook.

group picture of Marcell, me, Sylvain and Mael.

We decamped from this gorgeous spot and hiked back to our camping site where the girls had already arrived and built up our tents. 

What´s more fun than taking a group picture? A group picture in the middle of the night of course (where you can literally see nothing...).

On the next morning we got up pretty early and packed our things for the next hike: the Sealy Tarns Track. As this was one of the most exhaustive hikes we´ve done here in NZ so far, we decided to split up again and the girls did the  Hooker Valley Track we had done the day before while we guys tried our best to climb the incredibly steep Sealy Tarns Track. 

As I already mentioned in the picture above, the path leading up the mountain was extremely steep and although it was still early in the morning, the sun was already quite intense and made our climb extremely arduous, hot and sweaty. But the fabulous views made the exhausting ascent totally worth it!

En route to the top.

View onto the valley. Somewhere on the left side of this picture is the film set of "helms deep" of the Lord of the Rings.

This picture certainly reminds me of the Alps back home in Austria. 

On top! View to Mt Cook and the glacier lake we´ve been to yesterday on the right side of the picture and another stunning glacier on the left side.

We finally made it to the top of the Sealy Tarns Track!

Most certainly one of the most powerful and impressive mountains I´ve ever seen. Extremely steep and entirely covered with ice and snow, this giant is the root of countless avalanches dashing down the hillside. 

Me on top of the Sealy Tarns.

And one of the rare pictures of our photographer Sylvain at the same terrific spot.

Not a single tree is growing near Mt Cook. Neither in the valley nor on the mountains... What an arid yet stunning region!
We sat at the summit for quite some time before we walked back down the mountain, had some lunch with the girls and drove to the nearby Lake Tekapo to see an absolutely gorgeous sunset before we drove back to Dunedin:

This was our absolutely amazing trip to Mt Cook. I´ll definitely come back here at some point during the summer when my parents are coming to visit me here in kiwiland. But until then I´ll have to focus on uni and study for my exams as the finals are approaching quickly.