Mount Cook National Park

My next intended stop after Lake Tekapo was the remote Mount Cook Village. En route I wanted to stop at Lake Pukaki just before the turn off to Mount Cook Village, and to get here I got picked up some Asians who took me to Pukaki and when arriving wanted selfies with me and gave me some South Korean snacks to say goodbye! New Zealand is popular with Asians although you do need to be careful as they often do things like drive on the wrong side of the road. There were some great views of the mountains from Lake Pukaki although you couldn't see Mount Cook because there was some low lying cloud in that area. Whilst here I did do a little walk down to Marker Beach as I had time on my side which was nice.

From Pukaki I pretty easily got a ride to Mount Cook Village. The small village lies in the heart of the Mount Cook National Park, and is particularly famous for the Hermitage hotel built in the late 1800s for people wanting to climb the surrounding mountains, many of which are above 3000m. Nowadays it is a hotel for the rich with penthouse style rooms offering views of Mount Cook itself. There is no supermarket in the village, the nearest town Twizel being a 63km drive away. The village is in fact just 39km from the West Coast though,  with Franz Josef located the other side of the mountains. When arriving I went to the information centre where I evaluated my options, and with 5 nights planned in the national park I had plenty of time to explore weather depending.

Friday was not a great day in terms of weather with another storm battering New Zealand. Outside was gale force winds, zero visibility, and blizzards so I decided not to go out hiking. In fact what was snow in the village was heavy rain in lower lying areas and places like Timaru and Ashburton experienced some pretty bad flooding. Instead I headed to the Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre after lunch which was a mission getting to because of the weather, including a wind chill of minus 8. The centre had a museum and a variety of films to watch in this theatre and planetarium, watching films about Edmund Hillary, Mount Cook, and some interesting films about black holes and how infinite space is in the planetarium.

Saturday wasn't a great day either with poor visibility and persistent rain. It somewhat cleared after lunch though although it was still a little grey, but despite this I decided to head to the Tasman Glacier. Getting there was an 8km walk along a sealed road so I couldn't get lost, and when reaching the car park at the end there were a few little walks to various different points. I first headed to the Blue Lakes which were completely frozen over and I was even able to walk on them! I then headed to a lookout point over to the Tasman Glacier, the biggest glacier in New Zealand. The final walk took me down to the Tasman Lake which was completely frozen in places, a good 6 inches thick which a few icebergs floating at the end. The mountains even reflected in the lake despite the weather. I then headed back to the hostel, catching the sunset on the way, although I was glad to be back in the warm when getting back!

Sunday was by far the best days weather with blue skies and the sun out, which meant I had to make the most of it. Shortly after sunrise I therefore set out to do the Hooker Valley track, one of the most popular walks in New Zealand. The walk was flat going into the Hooker Valley finishing at the Hooker Lake with great views of Mount Cook and the Hooker Glacier. The lake was also frozen over with a few odd icebergs. As I left so early I passed very few people on the way to the lake and had it all to myself when arriving, but on my way out of the valley I passed a lot of people coming in.

After getting back to the start of the track I then decided to attempt the track up to the Sealy Tarns, about 1250m above sea level. As the village itself was covered in a fair amount of snow, heading up created even more snow and to add to this the path was incredibly steep and icy. In the end I got to about 1200m before I could no longer tell where the path was, and every direction I guessed I could go I was in snow above waist deep. I therefore decided not to continue, but I was still rewarded with great views of the Mueller and Hooker lakes and glaciers, as well as Mount Cook itself. When reaching the bottom I went via the Kea Point lookout looking out to the Mueller Lake, before heading back to the village via the Hermitage where I went up to this lookout point.

Monday was another grotty day. The only significant walk left I wanted to do was up to the Red Tarns and I saved this for afternoon when the weather improved a little. It was still a little rainy and visibility wasn't great but it wasn't torrential and I thought I would just go for it. When reaching the tarns there was a view looking back to the village, although the tarns themselves were completely frozen and there was a lot of snow. I even ended up to head at one point but luckily managed to dig myself out. When getting back to the hostel I was actually quite wet although I was glad I attempted to do every walk I planned in the national park. It would be interesting to return in the summer months to see how different it looks without snow!