Tekapo and Aoraki

Last week was Matt's last in his current job due to redundancy, and we took advantage of his few days off to take a little trip. We packed all our warmest clothes and thermals to spend a couple of days in Tekapo and Mount Cook. We had last been here in the glorious summer so it was wonderful to see everything covered in snow! Nana came with us so it was quite a squeeze in the truck, especially with the 'just in case' sledges!
We spent a day at Mount Cook and it was beautiful, the early morning mist cleared to blue skies and perfect views of Aoraki. We walked to Kea Point after lunch and saw the peaks and the glaciers. Joe loved hearing the rumbles of avalanches although we didn't see any. We also climbed a very steep, boulder covered route up the terminal moraine to see the Tasman Glacier and the glacial lake complete with icebergs. This time the lake was frozen, but at least we were spared the howling wind of our last visit. We did see a beautiful rainbow cloud and the picture just about shows it here.
Our home for the trip was a house with views of Lake Tekapo and we made the most of the wood burning stove. It didn't get above freezing while we were there, but the frost in the morning was beautiful.
The next day we went to the hot pools on the hillside above Tekapo and wallowed in the warm waters for about an hour and a half. I think my feet felt warm for the first time in 3 days! Ben and Joe had lovely time standing under the spouts of warm water and splashing around the pools. Joe kept getting out and counting to see how long he could bear to be out in the open air (quite a long time!), must be mad! We were able to sit in the pools and look out over the lake toward the snow capped mountains - aaahhhhhhh - heaven! Needless to say, once we were all examining the wrinkles on our wrinkles and feeling very relaxed we had to make the mad dash in the cold to the changing rooms - brrrrrrrr. We then watched the school children on the open air ice rink behind the pools - the boys fancy a go on another trip!

Matt did his handover at work on Friday and spent a LONG lunch break at the pub with his friends. The new job at the Council starts on Monday!
Joe and his team won their rugby match today against Belfast 10-7.
The rugby theme continues this evening as Joe, Nana and Matt have gone to watch the All Blacks play Italy at the AMI stadium. Joe and Nana are particularly looking forward to the Haka!