We legged it from Wanaka towards the park and watched the sky go pink over lake Pukaki where we camped for the night. We woke to torrential rain. We had a leisurely breakfast then headed out to the DOC office to see what might be doable despite the weather! We found it to be excellent procrastination with heaps of displays on the first ascents of mount cook, and left us very glad that we have fleeces and goretex instead of tweed suits and oilskins. We finally braved the outdoors for a very worthwhile short walk to see the terminal lake of the Tasman glacier, eating away at the base of the glacier causing blue icebergs to drop off it. Pretty spectacular despite the rain!
In the afternoon after much changing of minds and minimal changing of the weather we decided to have a crack at the Hooker valley trek despite the inclement conditions. We managed to get a peek at the mountains surrounding the Hooker and Muller looking especially dramatic shrouded in mist, before the winds got too strong for Eddie to sleep through, which was fair as we could barely stand up in the gusts, so we decided to head back. With no improvement scheduled for the next two days, we abandoned our plans of staying in a now very snowy hut at over 1800m and ran away to the lowlands!
Parenting Responsibly 