Taking the bus turned out to be a very civilised way to travel. None of the pushing and shoving to get a seat etc that you get in England with National Express. I just had to wait in the waiting room/office which conveniently was just around the corner from the YHA. A woman came around and found the passengers going to Mt Cook, checked us off on a list and then labelled our luggage.
We were taken outside and our luggage was stowed under the bus. Then on to find a seat and off we went. David our driver gave us a commentary all about the places we passed through. He said that he and his parents had come over when he was thirteen shortly after WWII and that as a young man he had worked in the farming industry. As we journeyed across the Canterbury Plain which is the farming heartland of NZ he told us all about the crops, stock and irrigation methods. Of course we saw thousands of sheep, but also cattle, llamas, alpacas and deer. All were being farmed.
After a while he mentioned that they would be linking with the flight companies to book in people who wanted to do glacier flights. I had already booked a flight for a couple of days later but as we had been driving the weather had changed and the sun was out. It was a glorious day and I might not get such a good day again. The assistant on the bus was a Japanese man called Sootoshi San he took my details and rang the company and my booking was changed. The bus dropped me and two other people at the airport. Meanwhile the bus took my luggage on up to the YHA in Cooktown.
Before I could say knife I was in the plane with the other people setting off down the runway. The last time I had been in a small plane like this was in 1972 over Grand Canyon and I had been terrified. My knees literally buckled when I got off the plane. Not this time though it was magical. 
The take off was very smooth and then we were up sort of floating over the glacier lake. Next we flew up the valley firstly crossing over the meltwater lake and then weaving from side to side over the bottom end of the glacier which was a mass of moraine where the glacier is melting away.
We passed the Murchison tributary glacier which has also melted back a lot and then we flew over towards the peak of Mt Cook on the left on the map. Finally we were over the glacier proper which had a lot of fresh snow on it but also lots of uneven bits with crevasses and icefalls. We passed the Darwin tributary glacier and when we got to the head of the glacier the pilot turned the plane and landed very smoothly on the snow having lowered the skis by pumping a lever backwards and forwards. The great thing was that he turned the engine off so we had the silence of the place. Not that it is that quiet. There is the wind and lots of melt water streams on the slopes at the side.
After walking about on fresh snow and taking photos we all to quickly were taking off again. This is the view from the cockpit. The black line is some sort of light reflection which my camera picked up from the propeller.
This time we criss-crossed the valley again to take a closer look at certain features such as the Huntstatter ice falls. This view is looking down the valley at the end of the glacier. 
Then back down the valley and down on the ground for a very smooth landing. Wow!! I was stunned at first that I had done it and got back in one piece! After that I just wanted to do it again.The glacier flight company took us up to the village and dropped me off at the YHA where my luggage was waiting for me.
Mt Cook turned out to be a very small place and development seems tightly controlled within the National Park. Apart from the YHA there are some chalets, a motel and the large Hermitage Hotel. There are no shops apart from a small one in the hotel. All the buildings are built in a slate grey colour so they do not intrude on the landscape too much.
After checking in and exploring I had supper a shower and relaxed. I then had to negotiate the problem of sleep. This was the only hostel where I could not get a room of my own and was therefore sharing an 8 bed bunk room. I was already a bit tired as a result of a restless night wondering if my alarm would go off OK ready to catch my bus. Things did not start well. The people in the room next door were very noisy. The girl in the bunk above me was very restless and every time she moved the whole of the bunk bed unit moved with her. Despite the fact that the window next to me was open I felt too hot. I wanted to get up a go to the loo but did not want to disturb anybody. I decided that I would just have to cope and that I would get a nap the next day at some point.
