Mount Cook & The Hooker Valley

Mount Cook & Hooker Lake in all it's glory

By complete chance we happened upon walking the Hooker Valley Track on a public holiday weekend in NZ. Labour Weekend seems like a perfectly timed public holiday – late spring, chance of good weather, a nice welcome to summer. And exactly that it was. The weather was incredible. I don’t think we could have had a better day to walk this equally incredible track through the Hooker Valley to the Glacier lake below the towering peak of Mount Cook. And because it was a public holiday, it seemed like many Kiwis also decided that this would be a great day to walk this track too.

Charlie fed up of being model

We arrived at the car-park come campsite after thinking we’d used up most of our ‘wows’ on the winding drive along Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook Village. Though it was another site altogether admiring the snow-capped mountains that looked over us from all angles at the campsite. We didn’t camp here, but if you were spending a couple of days exploring other tracks, it’s a busy campsite (for obvious reasons) yet a setting like no other to spend a night. There were many people ready to do the same thing as us, though we commented how some were already finishing the track at only 930am!? Should we have come earlier to avoid the crowds? Maybe. But it really didn’t matter. The astounding nature of this walk meant each person on the path faded into insignificance with each step closer to the lake. We listened to the fading booms of snow shifting around us, admired the bluer than blue waters flowing around the rocks under the swing bridges and spotted snow streams falling down the crevasses in the mountains that unfolded as we turned each corner. Nobody else mattered. Except Charlie, who was my model / poser for photos, and who I made take the odd photo of me in return. Once we passed over the three swing bridges and round the final corner, the glacial lake opened up to our left and Mount Cook towered ahead, sparkling in the sunlight. On the walk through the valley, there really is no hint of what meets you at the end. It is even more spectacular than the walk we already thought couldn’t be beaten.

We spent around 45 minutes at the lake. If you visit, take the walk right across the lake shore to the left. Here is where the lake flows out into the river which weaves its way back to the car park you start at. It really shows how much water and energy is contained within what looks like a still body of water from the other side. Also there are little waterfalls and less people – we even saw a small iceberg detach and navigate its way through the whirlpools to it’s end.

Using up the Wows too soon...

Charlie the unsuspecting model

In summary, this is an absolute MUST DO walk. The walk itself is not challenging – it is flat and mostly board walk – that’s not what this is about. It just gives the best return for scenic natural beauty and is my favourite spectacle of the whole road trip. Perhaps because the weather was favourable, though I’d like to return to the valley and complete the longer tracks in the area to see this place in different seasons.

The walk took us around 3½ hours, including the 45 minute pause at the lake for snacks and views. You could do it faster, but who would want to?! We had some lunch in Mount Cook Village, but really there is nothing here worth stopping for unless you are taking a scenic flight or doing further tracks. The drive out was as great as the drive in. Mount Cook framed in the wing mirror as we wound around Lake Pukaki is a picture I’ll never forget.