We looked at a couple of the walks that were available around the lake but after speaking to a Swiss guy decided the walk to the Observatory on top of Mount John sounded spot on. The walk up there looked over and the views of the surrounding area From all 360 degrees, across the lake, over the village, and west to the southern Alps,again amazing!
Feeling tried after the hike we grabbed a sneaky shower and used the kitchen at the YHA (having already checked out), and next stop was Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.
The drive took us a little out of the way but naturally well worth the de-tour. We pitched up on the DoC site by Mount Cook Village. The wind soon picked up and as we listened to the weather on the radio it sounded as though we were in for a long night. Thinking we'd be off quickly in the morning with heavy rain forecast overnight we went on our second walk of the day up to a good viewing point for Mount Cook.
With little else to do we made tea and were in the tent for about 8 pm. We sat, did a few puzzles out of our book, watched the tent struggle under the strong winds, and looked over the mountains hoping the weather wouldn't turn too bad.........
We were OK for a good few hours but the tent buckling in the wind soon resulted in the our duvet getting soaking wet, not fun. With little other option we jumped out of the tent and took the bedding into the car, needless to say there wasn't much sleep that night!