Mt Cook Christmas

Having Mike and Grace here for Christmas gave us a perfect excuse to head up to Mount Cook ('bout 5 hours drive) where we explored glacier lakes full of icebergs and ate tons of yummy food at the Hermitage buffet with a view (dessert shots of flan and tiramisu...genius!). The Sir Edmund Hillary Museum had just opened with movies on mountaineering and Everest and brand new planetarium. Definitely worth seeing and though not the cheapest, a comfortable place to stay. www.hermitage.co.nz

Christmas morning we opened presents sent from our lovely families and gobbled down homemade almond roca. Then off to Wanaka to sit in the 6 hot tubs and swim in a warm and cool pool while digesting Christmas dinner. Later we got inspired to hike off the rest of our meal and discovered a hidden mountain meadow and lake with a view of waterfalls.

The next day Mike and Grace took a scenic flight out of Queenstown over the fresh snow in the mountains to Fiordland where we met them after their cruise through Milford Sound and took them on a variety pack adventure of mini-hikes and photo ops.