After a long drive up through the mountains, we couldn’t quite decide whether to risk taking a detour to see the mighty Mount Cook. We did just that of course, but on the way we passed through a tiny town where we filled up with petrol (only just made it, and the towns here were few and far between!) and had a meal in a fantastically kiddie-friendly restaurant, which proved hard to leave. 
The girls had just begun to play nicely together (a rarity) and we felt they had been cramped up in the car for so long, we could hardly bear to tear them away. The hostel we stayed in that night was the YHA in Twizel a little town built to house workers at a hydroelectric power station, some 60 kilometers from the mountain itself. It was funny actually, because we were hunting around for a hotel, when Dorka shouted that she could see a YHA Hostel logo; Emma asked if she had to pretend to be four years old again. You can see we taught her some important life-lessons here. (For shame, for shame!)
The next morning, bright and early we headed for the mountain, but it was already too late, and starting to cloud over – we learnt 
that you had to be pretty lucky to catch this mountain in good weather, and we had no such luck! We did do a little walking though – up the path a few kilometers to a lovely spot overlooking a glacial lake. It looks like a big muddy puddle in the photos, but we were high up above it, and each of those chunks of ice floating in the puddle was as big as 
an office block! Emma and I clambered over rocks, while Lara slept peacefully on Dorka’s back. We headed back to little Twizel for the night, but we came back again the 60 km next morning, hoping once 
more for a glimpse of Mount Cook.
The girls had just begun to play nicely together (a rarity) and we felt they had been cramped up in the car for so long, we could hardly bear to tear them away. The hostel we stayed in that night was the YHA in Twizel a little town built to house workers at a hydroelectric power station, some 60 kilometers from the mountain itself. It was funny actually, because we were hunting around for a hotel, when Dorka shouted that she could see a YHA Hostel logo; Emma asked if she had to pretend to be four years old again. You can see we taught her some important life-lessons here. (For shame, for shame!)
The next morning, bright and early we headed for the mountain, but it was already too late, and starting to cloud over – we learnt 
that you had to be pretty lucky to catch this mountain in good weather, and we had no such luck! We did do a little walking though – up the path a few kilometers to a lovely spot overlooking a glacial lake. It looks like a big muddy puddle in the photos, but we were high up above it, and each of those chunks of ice floating in the puddle was as big as 
an office block! Emma and I clambered over rocks, while Lara slept peacefully on Dorka’s back. We headed back to little Twizel for the night, but we came back again the 60 km next morning, hoping once 
more for a glimpse of Mount Cook. No such luck – just clouds. We had a lovely view of the clouds though, from the famous Hermitage hotel, a massive structure complete with coffee shops and a restaurant, and even a little museum, which Emma explored by herself while her parents enjoyed some hot chocolate.
After waiting around all morning, and some of the afternoon too, we finally got moving North and East towards the coast. This was one of the epic drives of the trip, through mountain passes and down arrow-straight empty highways. Stopping only to pick up sandwiches, we headed on under an amazing sky. None of us had ever 
seen such clouds! They rolled and billowed like a child’s drawing and burned with all shades of orange and pink and later purple. As it got dark we found ourselves far from anywhere, so we started asking at each hotel we passed. None had any vacancies, and we began to think about simply driving in shifts all the way to the coast (another 4 or 5 hours away , but then we’d arrive there in the wee small hours, to do what?) In the tiny silent town of Mt Hutt, we found a tiny hostel, where the owner wasn’t even home, but 
one of the other long-term lodgers showed us around and gave us a room. It was all a little surreal. This unreal feeling continued when, just as we were easing the two sleepy kids into bed, an old fashioned air raid siren went off next door for a couple of minutes. So much for bedtime! (It turned out that this was the call for the local part-time fire brigade boys to come in for a fire-drill or whatever.) This was the weird end to a weird day, well actually the end was sipping tea in front of the telly and listening to tales of sheep shearing in Australia, while we waited for the host to arrive. It was great.
After waiting around all morning, and some of the afternoon too, we finally got moving North and East towards the coast. This was one of the epic drives of the trip, through mountain passes and down arrow-straight empty highways. Stopping only to pick up sandwiches, we headed on under an amazing sky. None of us had ever 
seen such clouds! They rolled and billowed like a child’s drawing and burned with all shades of orange and pink and later purple. As it got dark we found ourselves far from anywhere, so we started asking at each hotel we passed. None had any vacancies, and we began to think about simply driving in shifts all the way to the coast (another 4 or 5 hours away , but then we’d arrive there in the wee small hours, to do what?) In the tiny silent town of Mt Hutt, we found a tiny hostel, where the owner wasn’t even home, but 
one of the other long-term lodgers showed us around and gave us a room. It was all a little surreal. This unreal feeling continued when, just as we were easing the two sleepy kids into bed, an old fashioned air raid siren went off next door for a couple of minutes. So much for bedtime! (It turned out that this was the call for the local part-time fire brigade boys to come in for a fire-drill or whatever.) This was the weird end to a weird day, well actually the end was sipping tea in front of the telly and listening to tales of sheep shearing in Australia, while we waited for the host to arrive. It was great.
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