The people in the room next door went quiet just after 11.00 pm. The girl in the bunk above continued to be very restless but I woke up at about 7.30 having gone into a deep sleep in the small hours. To my surprise I felt fine all day and must have had enough deep sleep to help me cope with the day without the need for a nap.
The forecast for the day was fine which was amazing because they had had three days of solid rain until I arrived. I packed up a picnic lunch and set off to do some walking or hiking as the New Zealanders say and which sounds more impressive. I first walked to Kea Point. There were no Kea birds there although I saw and heard, some flying overhead. (They are very noisy). However the view was terrific. I could see across Meuller Lake, formed by the melting of the Meuller glacier, to a huge wall of Moraine which formed a massive grey cliff.
I sat and enjoyed the view for some time and then set off round to the next valley which contained the Hooker Glacier.
This walk was very spectacular as all the time I was walking towards Mt Cook the highest mountain in NZ. The scenery was fantastic. The only drawback was the number of people doing the walk. It was clearly popular with the large groups of Japanese tourists, on guided walks and who were staying at the Hermitage Hotel, .
Despite this it was worth it as at the end you get very close to the snout of the Hooker Glacier. 
The meltwater lake was full of ice broken off from the glacier and gradually melting. They say that some of the water crystals have been trapped in the ice for millions of years! Some people were taking them out and smashing them on the ground. This seemed somehow wrong to me.
By this time it had clouded up a bit and was spitting with rain. The number of people diminished and I was able to walk, scrabble across rocks until I could see the end of the glacier clearly. It was covered with surface moriane making it look grey not white but you could clearly see the blue ice cliff, striped with layers of moraine trapped inside it.
After that I walked back to the hostel and as I had been walking for 6 hours albeit with lots of stops I was ready for a good rest. After a wash and brush up I decided to go for an evening meal at the Old Mountaneers' Cafe up the road. Their speciality dish is Sir Edmund Hillary's Sausages.
I checked the menu and the 'S is as I have typed it. Lucky they decided to make the sausage bit plural. Anyway it was OK. Sir Edmund's sausages were not that interesting and there was a bit of mildew on my cauliflower but the beer was nice and after a long walk a warm hearty meal was welcome.
Then back to the hostel to see if I could get a better night's sleep in the dorm.
