Day 21. Mount Cook. Obscured by clouds.

Up at the crack to drive around the lake and hike up to the glacier that drops off the south-western side of Mount Cook.

It all looked so promising when we set off from our makeshift campsite, hardly a cloud in the sky and little wind. We were, however, going to be 1000 metres up, so Wend insisted we wore the gay long-johns she'd bought yesterday in Methven.

Apparently it's de rigeur this season to wear them under one's shorts, which is kind of ok for the ladies but made me look like one of the crappier dancers in Kids from Fame.

Anyway, by the time we reached the foot of the mountain the inevitable happened and the upper slopes were wrapped in thick white fluffy stuff. Still had a great day's walking though and it was a real thrill to see such a huge glacier close up.

Bits were breaking off and crashing into the stream beneath, giving me the perfect opportunity to pick up a lump and throw it at the missus. I thought this was absolutely hilarious, Wend thought otherwise. Bloke thing I suppose.

Once I'd become bored with the glacier tomfoolery I decided to concentrate on capturing Mount Cook in all its glory with some award winning photography, but unfortunately the clouds continued to play silly buggers all day long.

They'd suddenly clear, revealing the full 12,600 ft mass of mountain, so I'd whip out the camera and take some breathtaking shots of .....clouds. Then I'd put the camera away and ten minutes later they'd clear again, so I'd try again, and get some more shots of clouds. This charade went on, and on, and on. Until finally we were blessed with a huge dollop of unbroken blue. This time I smiled as I took out the camera, "your ass is mine" I said to NZ's biggest, baddest lump of rock, only to discover my sodding battery had run out.

So we bought a postcard of the mountain at the visitor's centre. and I took a picture of that instead.

Returned to our little spot in the wilderness for another night roughing it, which gave us a chance to try out our Solar shower. Essentially, this is a black rubber bag with a showerhead attatchment. You fill it with water, leave it to warm in the sun, and come the end of the day, Bob's your Uncle.

Checking first to make sure there were no Palestinian freedom fighters lurking in the bushes, we had a lovely old rinse.

A perfect end to an almost perfect day.