TRAVELOKA NZ : Aoraki Mt Cook | Waitaki Valley | Moeraki

Mount Cook adalah gunung tertinggi di New Zealand yang menjadi sebahagian daripada Mount Cook National Park. 

Terletak di Pergunungan Southern Alps Wilayah Canterbury tak jauh dari kota kecil Twizel di South Island. Nama Mount Cook diambil daripada nama seorang kapten navigator yang berasal dari England iaitu Captain James Cook.

Padang lalang di pesekitaran kawasan Mt Cook National Park

Tahukah anda, Aoraki adalah nama Gunung Cook dalam bahasa Maori?

Menurut legenda puncak tertinggi Mount Cook dikenal sebagai Aoraki oleh suku Māori.

Aoraki adalah seorang anak muda dari Kano Te Waka Aoraki, yang terdampar di batu cadas. Aoraki dan saudara-saudaranya akhirnya naik ke sisi yang tinggi dan duduk di reruntuhan. Angin selatan yang sejuk dan dingin membuatkan Aoraki membeku dan menjadi batu dan saat ini ianya dikenali sebagai puncak Alps Selatan.

Mt Cook

Mt Cook National Park (juga dikenal sebagai Aoraki National Park) merupakan kawasan Alps yang tersendiri kerana memiliki puncak gunung tinggi, tasik glasier dan pergunungan diliputi salji. Mt Cook ini juga lah yang membantu Sir Edmund Hillary mengembangkan daya usaha beliau sebelum berjaya menjadi penakluk pertama Gunung Everest.

Memiliki hampir 23 puncak yang berketinggian melebihi 3000 meter, Aoraki ini terletak tidak jauh dari Lake Pukaki.

Kawasan Aoraki Mt Cook

Kami ke sini untuk trekking ke Hookey Valley.

Terdapat 10 jalur pendek untuk berjalan kaki yang dimulai dari kawasan perkampungan. Semua jalur telah dibangun dan ditandai dengan baik. Red Tarns Track, Kea Point dan Hooker Valley Track memakan waktu sekitar dua jam.

Trekking agak senang tapi waktu musim dingin agak mencabar dengan ribut dan hujan. Kami sendiri hampir putus asa setelah di landa badai dan ribut yang merusuh teruk.

Trekking ke Hooker Valley

Cabaran hujan dan ribut

Tasik Glacier dengan iceberg di Hookey Valley

Tapi kawasan Aoraki/Mt Cook ni memang cantik especially bila tiada ribut dan hujan. Alhamdulillah kami di beri kesempatan dengan cuaca yang cerah keesokkan harinya.

Dari penginapan

Mt Cook

Puncak Mt Cook

Penginapan di Mt Cook

Mt Cook/Aoraki National Park

Laluan ke pergunungan

Hati ku tertinggal di Mt Cook

On the way ke Dunedin, kami singgah di beberapa kawasan di sekitar Waitaki Valley seperti Clay Cliffs, Lake Benmore, Lake Waitake di Omarama, Elephants Rocks di Kurow dan Moeraki Boulders serta Moeraki Beach di Moeraki sebelum sampai di Dunedin.

Layan je la gambar gambar di persekitaran dan laluan.

Clay Cliffs, Omarama

The Clay Cliffs are huge sharp pinnacles and ridges with deep, narrow ravines separating them. The Clay Cliffs are made of layers of gravel and silt, deposited by rivers flowing from glaciers existing 1-2 million years ago. Compared to the nearby mountains, which are 250 million years old, the Clay Cliffs are relatively new. 

Today the gravel and silt layers can be seen as sloping bands as the strata have been tilted since their deposition 1-2 million years ago.

Clay Cliffs, Omarama

Lake Benmore is a lake located in the South Island of New Zealand. It was artificially created in the 1960s by construction of Benmore Dam. 

The lake covers an area of approximately 75 km². Parts of it lie in the Mackenzie, Waimate, and Waitaki districts within the southern portion of the Canterbury Region.

Lake Benmore

The major rivers with which it is fed are the Ohau, Pukaki, Tekapo and Ahuriri Rivers. Immediately downstream is Lake Aviemore. The lake has New Zealand's largest earth dam as part of the Waitaki hydroelectricity power scheme.

After the lake was created the incidence of seismic shocks increased by a factor of three to six times.

Lake Benmore

Lake Benmore

Lake Benmore, Omarama

Lake Waitaki is the smallest, oldest and farthest downstream of the three man-made lakes of the Waitaki hydroelectric project in New Zealand's South Island. It lies below lakes Aviemore and Benmore on the Waitaki River, close to the town of Kurow. It is part of the traditional boundary of the Canterbury and Otago regions (although the official border has been moved southward to include the entire lake, as well as the entire northwest portion of Waitaki District within the Canterbury Region.

The lake is created by Waitaki Dam, a 36m high spill weir dam built between 1928 and 1934. 

The Waitaki power station has an installed capacity of 105MW. Waitaki was the last dam built in New Zealand with excavation done with pick and shovel, not heavy machinery. The power station is to be upgraded by Meridian Energy between 2011 and 2016 at a projected cost of $NZ 60 - 80 million

Lake Waitake, Omarama

Lake Waitake

Lake Waitake

Lake Waitake

Tinggal kenangan

Menuju Elephant Rocks

Elephants Rocks

The Elephant Rocks are massive limestone formations sitting in a sea of grass on private farmland. The rocks were once sand at the bottom of the sea that accumulated 25 million years ago. These sediments were buried and the pressure turned the sand into rock, or limestone. When the whole area of limestone lifted and surfaced, the forces of the wind and water did their part in shaping the limestone.

Elephants Rocks

Elephants Rocks

The rocks come in all shapes and sizes, and are popular with climbers, especially for doing some serious bouldering. 

The area may also give some people a certain sensation of déjà vu; especially those that are fans of “The Chronicles of Narnia” movie: the Elephant Rocks served as a location for Aslan’s camp.

Moeraki Boulder

Moeraki Boulders adalah bongkahan batu yang luar biasa besar dan bulat terletak di sepanjang hamparan Pantai Koekohe di pesisir Otago di antara Moeraki dan Hampden,

Batu-batu terletak berkelompok hasil dari hakisan dan tindakan batu lumpur yang berlaku sejak dahulu lagi.

 

Batu batu di Moeraki Boulders

Moeraki Beach

Dan senja di Moeraki Beach

Senja datang

Moeraki Beach

Singgah di Moeraki Beach. Gelisah menanti senja !

Gelisah

Gelisah

Gelisah

Gelisah menanti dinda

Di ambang bahgia

Mungkinkah khabaran cinta

Akan menjelma

Rindu hati ku tiada terkira

Atau impian yang menggoda

Gelisah inikah dia

Getarannya jiwa

Bergema menyiksa dada

Aku derita

Mungkinkah kita dapat bersua

Menjalinkan kasih mesra

Dialam nyata

Tempat tempat di atas ini boleh di singgahi sekiranya dalam perjalanan dari Aoraki atau Lake Pukaki menuju ke Dunedin.

Perjalanan singgah singgah sebegini akan mengambil masa untuk berhenti berhenti. Ada yang menarik dan ada yang boleh skip saja. Tapi alang alang sampai, boleh je detour dan atur perjalanan sebaiknya.

Apa yang penting fokus untuk kekal sampai ke destinasi seterusnya..............