Day 15 – Australia/New Zealand Adventure – Off to Mount Cook!

(Friday, March 21, 2025) by Ann Silverthorn with Jim DeDad

Bits ‘n Bobs from Cam (and Ann):

• Queenstown, which we left this day, is the birthplace of bungee jumping. AJ Hackett and a friend introduced it. They did a lot of  testing with objects and jumped off the Eiffel Tower (illegally)
• New Zealand is trying to remove a lot of invasive species from its ecosystems. Many pines have been poisoned by the government to get the land back to its original state. 
• Arrowtown, a stop on the way to Mount Cook, has a large Chinese population because they stayed after they were brought in to help mine for gold. 
• Arrowtown public toilets are sophisticated and talk you through the process.
• There is a series of three lakes along the way to Mount Cook that are connected by canals, so they can raise or lower their levels as needed. 
• Mt. Cook is in the southern Alps and is the highest mountain in New Zealand, about half the height of Mount Everest. Sir Edmond Hillary, from New Zealand, climbed Mount Cook and also was the first to reach the summit of Everest, with his Sherpa, Tenzing Norway, in 1953. 
• Mount Cook is one of the most dangerous mountains to climb, even more dangerous than Everest because of glaciers and adverse weather conditions.
• Forty percent of Mount Cook National Park is covered by glaciers.
• Mount Cook National Park was designated a World Heritage Site in 1990.

Our first stop on the way to Mount. Cook was Arrowtown, a former gold-rush town. It has a charming main street with many cute boutiques and coffee shops. There was also a historic Chinese village and high-tech toilets.

We peeked in at the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement where the walking tour takes approximately 45 minutes. We didn’t have that much time, because we had to get back to the bus, but it was interesting to see the preserved buildings and structures, such Ah Lum’s general store and bank. Ah Lum was literate in both English and Chinese. He served as an interpreter and letter writer. Ah Lum’s store stocked goods such as teas, rice, pickled lemons, ginger, opium, medicine, and smoking accessories. The store served as a gathering center for the people of the village.

Like many others, the Chinese came seeking gold from the late 1860s to the 1880s. They numbered approximately 8,000, comprised 40% of the miners in the area, and produced 30% of its gold. They were mostly men who left their families to seek their fortune. 

Our next stop was the AJ Hackett bungee jumping facility. Anyone who wanted to take a jump could, but none of us decided on that option. We got to watch a couple of people jump. It was funny that I’d had a dream the previous night that I was in a situation where I was going to have to make a big jump, but it wasn’t with a bungee cord!

As we traveled along through the mountains, it was best that I didn’t sit by the window, because there are a lot of gorges, and not always guardrails. When there are guardrails, I doubt they’d be strong enough to stop a bus!

At the Jones Family Fruit Stall in Cromwell, they offer a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, dried fruit, nuts, honey, and other cool stuff. We saw the biggest kiwis, avocados, and pine cones ever! This was almost enough to make me want to relocate to New Zealand.

We also stopped at The Wrinkly Rams in Omarama for lunch. In addition to the cafe and wine bar, it also had a magnificent gift shop, but everything was priced higher than I was willing to spend. When a Canadian woman in our group asked me if I bought anything, I said no, and why, and she told me their dollar was so weak at the time that something priced at $100 would cost more like $130 for her. For me and my US dollars, $100 was more like $70. That was a bit of an economic wakeup!

The road to Mount Cook gave spectacular views of the mountains. We reached the Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook at around 4:00 p.m. Jim and I looked around and took some pictures of the mountain from the front of the hotel. Then we went into the bar and had a drink before dinner, visiting with another couple from the group.

Our destination that evening was the Hermitage Hotel Mount Cook. There are many stunning views from the hotel and visitor’s center. 

The dinner buffet was good probably one of the best at this hotel, as were the desserts, including self-serve, soft-serve ice cream. Lots of toppings, too. Did you know jelly beans get extremely hard when placed on ice cream? I’m glad I still have my teeth, and I had fun!

After dinner, we went outside to do some star gazing. We saw many more stars than we ever do at home. Also, we saw the Milky Way!

Tomorrow, off to Christchurch. The trip is winding down. . . 

9,183 steps