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Merry Christmas to you; I hope you all have had a wonderful day giving gifts, receiving presents, stuffing yourself with food and playing with the cardboard boxes. Christmas was just slightly diffeent for me this year, despite the fact i was in Mt Cook National Park. I went to bed late, and loe I woke up on Christmas Day to the sound of hiphop. "So you wanna be me, you bitch" is not the most christmassy of lyrics. No turkey, chocolate money or Mum's gorgeous Xmas cake, no presents to open or give, or Vicar of Dibley to watch on TV. In fact, I only heard the word 'christmas' mentioned 3 times all da. But, I have been treating myself to masses of feel-good food all week: chocolate, chocolate mousses, jelly, mince pies, caramel slices, popcorn, christmas cake, spiced biscuits I had fun baking, a perfect steak, sausages - yes, that's right, I'm a greedy fat bastard.

The road to Cook

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 17:59:39

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Merry Christmas to you; I hope you all have had a wonderful day giving gifts, receiving presents, stuffing yourself with food and playing with the cardboard boxes. Christmas was just slightly diffeent for me this year, despite the fact i was in Mt Cook National Park. I went to bed late, and loe I woke up on Christmas Day to the sound of hiphop. "So you wanna be me, you bitch" is not the most christmassy of lyrics. No turkey, chocolate money or Mum's gorgeous Xmas cake, no presents to open or give, or Vicar of Dibley to watch on TV. In fact, I only heard the word 'christmas' mentioned 3 times all da. But, I have been treating myself to masses of feel-good food all week: chocolate, chocolate mousses, jelly, mince pies, caramel slices, popcorn, christmas cake, spiced biscuits I had fun baking, a perfect steak, sausages - yes, that's right, I'm a greedy fat bastard.

Christmas aside, Mt Cook National Park, or the Misty Mountains [depending on the world] is a beautiful place, when the weather's fine. Seriously, I've met people who've been to Mt Cook National Park four times, and have still yet to see the master that's Mt Cook that ishimself. But with great fortune at being a fairly good boy this year, Santa offered me a perfect blue sky on arrival, allowing for some more of New Zealand's spectacular photographic opportunities. Mt Cook, known to the Mauri as Aoraki (Cloud Piercer0, at 3755m is not only the largest mountain in New Zealand, but all of Australasia, and is still uplifting at an impressive 10mm per year. Also, when Sir Edmond Hilary climbed it, he was quoted as saying it "meant I have achieved my 1st major ambition." It's easy to fall under its spell as it dwarfs the other mountains. So here I stayed for a few days, going on day walks into the many valleys and to see the Tasman Glacier, which basically looks like a big lump of rubble, and eat...lots.

Backtracking a few days, I mentioned in my previous ...