Eoin and I got into the car at Mt. Cook soaking wet and ready to get some sleep. We still had another hour and a half drive ahead of us to get to our air bnb at Lake Hawea. Finally arriving at the air bnb we were greeted by our wonderful host who gave us hot cups of tea and showed us to where we would be staying. The room we booked was a little camper they called "Buttercup" which sat outside their house. While it may not sound great the camper was very nice and the heater inside kept the room toasty. We fell asleep moments after laying down on the very comfortable mattress.
The next day our plan was to head to Mt. Aspiring National Park and hike the Rob Roy Track, which would take us through beautiful landscapes and allow us to see the Rob Roy Glacier. We got up at the crack of dawn and made our way to the trail. The drive was only two hours, but shortly after passing through the town of Wanaka the road became unpaved and slower going. On this drive Eoin and I were introduced to what they call "fords" in New Zealand, which meant that we would have to drive over a small portion of a creek. These fords were fairly deep holes and we always crossed our fingers as we drove our car through them. After passing through 5 fords we finally made it to the base of the trail. Even with our hiking boots on the trail was considerably icy so we had to take our time going up. Rob Roy Track offered two lookout points which allowed you to look over the valley and then the glacier if you continued going. It took us about an hour and a half to reach the second lookout and the view was incredible. At the top of the mountain we were able to make out the glacier and the sun made it look spectacular. In the silence we could hear a few rocks fall from the top of the mountain and kept us on our toes. On the way back down a lot of the ice had melted and we were able to pick up the pace. We made it to the bottom in good time and headed to Wanaka to get dinner. From there we went back to buttercup and worked out what we were gonna do the next day.
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