Peaks and Places | Travel and Adventure Blog

We spent the Matariki weekend the same way a lot of other New Zealander’s spent their holiday: Travelling. We decided it would be a good weekend to go see Mount Cook, and the weather was looking good. We needed to cross a pass to get there, and without chains for the van, the weather played a large role in our decision on where to drive.

We were getting a little nervous on the drive up, as it was very cloudy and a little rainy. We could barely see the mountain ranges as we were driving in, and took turns (incorrectly) guessing which mountain was probably Mount Cook. With our DOC pass, we were able to spend the night in the campsite right next to the trail we wanted to hit first thing in the morning. The campground, called White Horse Hill, was pretty large. The only downside to the campsite was that the majority of the toilets were closed for Winter. Overall, it was a really nice campsite and didn’t end up being too crowded.

It rained all night, and we were a little hopeful that the cloud coverage would keep the temperature around a nice 40 degrees F. We hoped wrong. We woke up to a hard frost, and had to prepare for our morning hike to be much colder than we had originally anticipated. The big silver lining, however, was that there was not a single cloud in the sky and we were greeted with surrounding views of beautiful mountainscapes and snow.

The first hike of the day is one of the most popular and well known hikes in New Zealand: The Hooker Valley Trail. This is a relatively easy, yet somewhat long (10 kilometers), hike through the Hooker Valley. The entire hike provides stunning views of the surrounding mountain ranges, including the one and only Mount Cook. There were several swing bridges (our favorite) and lots of stunning streams full of, you guessed it, glacial flour. This glacial flour, we decided, was slightly different than that we saw in Hokitika Gorge, giving off a color of Arctic Blast Gatorade, rather than Listerine.

At the end of the trail, you are greeted with a stunning view of Mount Cook, and a glacial lake below. The glacial lake held another fun surprise for us: Icebergs! I have never seen a true iceberg before, and neither had Eric, so it was really cool to be able to see true icebergs for the first time. The whole hike ended up taking us around 3 hours, and we would do it again in a heartbeat.

Nearby there was another little hike we wanted to do, called Kea Point. We, unfortunately, did not see any Kea along this track. It was a pretty easy trail, and gave us a really good view of Mount Sefton and Mueller Lake. While short, it was also definitely worth doing, and another one we would make time to do again if we make it back to the area.

We finished both of these hikes before lunch, and the sun was finally warming up the van and the day. After lunch, we headed to our next stop: Tasman Glacier!

Once we arrived we decided to first hike to the Tasman Glacier Jetty. This was a large lake with giant icebergs that had fallen off of the glacier. The sun was shining and we were both in good moods, so it seemed like a good time to do something a little crazy… go swimming! We had brought our swimsuits, and had debated on if we actually were going to swim or not, but we finally decided to take the plunge. Plus, how many people get to say they went swimming with literal icebergs?

It. Was. Freezing. I have never felt pain like I felt in that icy cold water. It was probably 33-34 degrees F. We both agreed that the pain in our feet was the worst, like thousands of tiny little needles stabbing you over and over again. It was a ton of fun. After struggling to get back out of the water and back onto the land (tip – don’t be like us, remember your water shoes or Chacos), we hung out in the sun to warm up and dry off. It was well worth it and we would do it again (we came to this decision after we had warmed up).

The day wasn’t done yet though! We did a couple smaller hikes in the area, Blue Pools and the Tasman Glacier Viewpoint. The Blue Pools we found to be a little underwhelming, they were a little less blue and more green in color, and were frozen over almost completely. The viewpoint was amazing however. The Tasman glacier is different from Fox and Frans Josef. This glacier was covered almost completely in gravel and was absolutely massive. Plus, it was cool seeing the glacier that we basically went swimming with earlier.

By this time, we were rapidly losing our sun behind the many mountains all around us. We decided to head towards our camp for the night, a freedom campsite called Pines Camp at the bottom of Lake Pukaki. It looked out over the entirety of the lake, leading up the Mount Cook. It was a great night to watch the sun set, illuminating Mount Cook and the surrounding mountain ranges. The camp also came with bonus cats. There were three little kitties that were roaming around, trying to get scraps from the campers. We obliged, and they got a few pieces of ham in return for some pets. The next morning, Eric even managed to pick one up (she was less impressed)! This wraps up our 24 hours in Mount Cook National Park! The next day, the pass ended up getting over six inches of snow, so we really couldn’t have times this trip any better!