Lakes and Mountains and Starry skies

Bumper mended and back on track to Geraldine. We spent three nights near Gerlsdine walking and waiting to get a clear night. Why a clear night? Well, Geraldine has an old gent from Accrington in Lancashire who has his own observatory in the back garden and he was going to treat us to an astronomy viewing night. The first night was way too windy as we knew, second night was think cloud so just like Goldilocks the third night was just right. He has two observatories with four telescopes Sarah and I looked at Saturn and its moons (see below for a picture of what we saw), a shooting star, comet, Milky Way, Southern Cross, a linear Galaxy, the Jewel box constellation and Scorpio constellation to name but a few. 

Included this photo of the sun taken by Peter. He does supernova searching and observing plus he gives anyone who asks a free guided nights viewing of the night sky. Very educational and an extraordinary experience from an educated gentleman. All donations he gets go to educate kids in astronomy. 

Onward into the south islands centre and the lakes around Mt. Cook. The first stunning azure lake is Lake Tekapo with this tiny church perched on the lake edge. The view past the altar is probably the best pew view in the world with the lake and snow capped mountains behind. I guess the congregation would never tire of long sermons here. They still hold weekly Sunday service at 4pm. No pictures in the church but if look through the door that's the view the congregation has. 

Lake Alexandrina next to Lake Tekapo and the southern mountain range stretching across the horizon

Following day we travelled the short distance to Mt. Cook village campground passing Lake Pukati which is around twice the size of Tekapo. Look in the centre below the cloud and the little peak is Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest mountain at approx. 3775m. A mere drop in the ocean after the Throng La Pass in Nepal at 5455m 

The Tasman Glacier near Mt. Cook seen here in the distance from our vantage point was 25 years ago higher than where we stood to take this picture, it's shrinking on average by half a kilometre a year and by 2027 it will only be 20km long. It doesn't look much like the glaciers we've seen on our travels as is full of rocks and as you can see the wind here is fierce. 

It was so wildly at the foot of Mt. Cook that we were rocked to sleep praying the awing on the rear of the van remained attached. In the morning it was torrential rain and no visibility so scampered down the road until we found dry weather and returned the next day in bright sunshine to complete our planned walk and view another glacier with ice bergs at the base of Mt. Cook via the Hooker Valley Track. 

The summit of Mt. Cook from the back of the van