Mount Cook

February 10, 2014

And here is the beautiful Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain.  We arrived at late afternoon and camped out at the end of Lake Pukaki, which provided us with a beautiful view of the aquamarine lake and Mount Cook standing majestically at the end. 

Freedom camping at Lake Pukaki.

The next morning we drove the remaining 60 kilometers to the base of the mountains. In fact, of the 27 mountains in New Zealand over 3050 meters, 22 are in this park.  The number of mountains and glaciers makes it a popular spot for mountaineers.  It also means there have been more than 200 deaths on these mountains in the past 120 years.  These are well documented in a memorial room at the visitor information center. 

But not to worry, we chose to do an easy walk along a trail increasing only 30 meters in altitude from beginning to end.  No dangers of land slides, avalanches or falls into crevices.  As a result it was busy with tourists that were being brought in by the busloads.  The National Park has installed good walking tracks and suspension bridges to make the walk easier.  It was worth the 90-minute walk to see Hooker Lake and the Hooker glacier.  We did see the icebergs floating in the lake as promised in the guidebook and stopped awhile to enjoy the incredible vistas. 

 

One of three suspension bridges heading up to Hooker Glacier.

The Hooker Glacier

Icebergs floating in the lake.

We also walked in to see Tasman Lake and its glacier.  Tasman Lake is a new lake which started forming in the 1970’s.  This lake also had icebergs floating on it, the largest of which had cracked off the glacier during the Christchurch earthquakes in 2011.  

The very regal Mount Cook.  The Maori name is Aoraki meaning "the cloud-piercer".