Just W.O.W.

 I left the little hostel room early yesterday morning to catch the Tekapo shuttle to Mount Cook village and the Southern Alps.  

We were in the Mackenzie High Country now, surrounded by mountain views at one point, and dedicated sheep country. We stopped at several viewpoints to take photos. 

Mount Cook.

One of many rivers we crossed, with meltwater from the mountain snows discolouring it.  Apparently it's the tiny particles of Glacial 'flour' which give the lakes their amazing turquoise colouring as the refract the light in a certain way. Some of the river plains are very wide indeed and you can imagine are quite a sight when in spate, although the Mackenzie country is dry. We were told that in the winter there could be a metre of 🌨️ snow fall overnight. Wet only when that melts.

We had a couple of walks of an hour or so. This one took us to another meltwater lake, right at the foot of the mountains. I was fortunate to notice a small avalanche tumbling down and shouted Look to all the folk taking photos of each other, but they didn't seem that impressed.

Stained glass in the visitors centre. So beautiful. The other photo would only load at the bottom of the page.

A photo of a photo in the excellent Visitor Centre. I was tickled to see she had a little handbag!  The man must have been a monopede mountaineer! Talk about intrepid!

My favourite photo - it looks like a St Trinian's day out!  They must have been shamed in just thin cotton shirts.  Instructions from teacher, "stout shoes today girls" . . .

Finally, view from my hotel room.