Day Fifteen: More snowy mountains, Sir Edmund, and bunnies in Aoraki National Park

I forgot to mention that Mount Aoraki used to be called Mount Cook, but has had its original, or earlier name restored. (Captain Cook should not be rolling in his grave as he still has a great number of things named after him (or things that he named himself). It actually was quite staggering, the number of places he managed to get to back in the day!)

Anyway, we had a cold but beautiful hike this morning.

Here's an oystercatcher, a long way from any oysters.

A male Paradise Shelduck

  There's our van down below.

Marsha and Sharon from our group

Yes, it was very cold, but the natives (our guide, Mark in shorts) are hardy creatures!

My view at lunchtime:

It was the cafe at the Hillary Centre, hence the Edmund heads...

And this was my lunch!

We did not have much time to look round the museum/visitor centre, but I liked this selection of old travel posters and cameras.










After lunch, another hike:

The whole group, apart from yours truly...

OK, I am presuaded to join in...

I won't upset fellow bunny lovers by telling you how many are slaughtered each day. It's really sad, as they are only here because some idiot brought them over for the fur trade! They of course breed like rabbits and even though they are food for the also non-native stoats, both upset the balance of the native wildlife (which are birds; the only native land mammals being bats).

But they are so darn cute!!

Speaking of cute, there was a resident Manx cat at our lodgings for two nights (the Mackenzie Country Inn) who spent most of the time curled up in front of a wall heater in the lobby. Of course as soon as I tried to take a picture of his blissed-out-ness, he got up and haughtily walked away. My other two shots were even more blurred!

I'll end the day with some giant stilts in the Twizel town centre.