Mount Cook

Dear all

Today we woke to the most beautiful day and knew that our walk along the Hooker Valley to the foot of Mt Cook at the Hooker glacier terminus would be perfect. We set off early to avoid the worst of the crowds & the first stop on the walk was to an alpine memorial which pays tribute to the great climbers who have lost their lives on one of the mountains which overlooks the valley and I was shocked to see how many were there. All ages, mainly men in their twenties, but some in their sixties from all over the world. 

The walk itself undulated along the valley track along a glacial stream, crossing a couple of swing bridges and the flora and fauna was fabulous including the very pretty Cook lilies. Mt Cook dominates the whole view for the whole journey.

 Although we were in a valley it was still pretty hot so we took our time and had a timeout at the lake watching the ice, which had fallen off the glacier float across the lake and down the stream. We managed to grab a block smash a bit off and taste a bit - It was lovely! The 2hr walk back was equally fab, but was much busier & much hotter so I was glad we left early. After a long lunch & a siesta I left Dean to recover a bit more and took another trail out to Kea point, which had loads of different types of plants and ends at a platform with great views of of not just Mt Cook, but also Mt Sefton, the valley & the footstool. Despite its name I didn't see any more Kea, which was a shame as I quite like these cheeky parrots, but did see a couple of skinks basking in the sun. Once I was back we drove back to the village and had a look around the exhibition of the area at the DOC site  and the very famous Hermitage hotel, which was rebuilt here in the 1950's when the first one was firstly flooded & then burnt down near our campsite. It has fantastic views of Mt Cook and also houses the Sir Edmund Hilary Alpine museum. Well worth a coffee on the terrace of you ever get the chance!

Before we left the area we had a walk up to a lookout over the glacial lake and terminus to the Tasmen Glacier, the largest in NZ. As with most glaciers this one is receding and so the last few hundres metres is covered in rocks and doesn't look particularly glam, but as you can see quite a substantial part of its 26km length it is still pretty impressive and the bergs in the lake were massive as well.
We finished the day off driving to Lake Tekapo where we camped for the night pretty much cream crackered!

Nite all

Sara