Memories: Mount Cook, Tasman Glacier, and the Hooker Valley

In July, I had fun being a tour guide for my visiting aunt and her friend. We had five days before the friend went home—my aunt stayed on for another three weeks—and in those five days we took as big of a tour of the South Island as we could!

They arrived on the 15th, a Wednesday. My third brother and I were dropped off at the airport around 10 pm to meet them—they were scheduled to land about midnight. We watched the clock slowly tick by the minutes, and when it reached 00:00 my brother announced we had reached the end of time! About half an hour later they came out of the terminal, and we happily greeted them.

That night, we stayed at a local holiday park in a cabin—getting to bed around 2:30 or so!—and the next morning, Thursday, around 8:30 we went to drop some excess luggage off at a kind friend’s place. Then by 9:30 or 10 we took off south.

It had rained a bit overnight, and was still spitting and overcast the next morning. Off and on all morning, we had showers of rain and overall we weren’t able to see much scenery. I started praying—hard—that we’d have decent weather, but it didn’t look like we’d get it that day. Then, as we drove over Burke’s pass—heading into McKenzie country—the sky cleared and left us with this view:

It was gorgeous. The mountains were just beautiful. This is the middle of winter, but I’ve never seen the hills and mountains so pretty before (perhaps because we always considered travelling in the middle of winter a waste of time because of weather variables?).

We had gorgeous scenery the rest of the way south (roughly six hours total in the end, with several breaks for picture-taking and lunch).

We got to Lake Tekapo, one of the lakes created by glaciers and man-made waterways. This is a beautiful area, and we took some stretch time and got some pictures. The scene in the picture above is on a postcard of the area.

We were planning to visit the Tasman Glacier that evening, yet, so we would have more time the next day for the Hooker Valley and then for getting across the mountains to the West Coast, but by the time we got down in the area it was 4:00 pm and we only had an hour or hour and a half until sunset—and it would take roughly half an hour to get out there! We decided it wasn’t worth it, and headed on to Twizel.

We got a group photo while there.

That evening, we stayed with some wonderful friends who had relocated to the area after the Christchurch earthquakes. They were very hospitable, and we really enjoyed our evening there.

The next morning, Friday, we took off about 8:30 again, and I was pretty disappointed by the thick fog along the way. I wanted a view of the mountains, but it looked like we were doomed to a foggy, dismal day—not uncommon for this time of the year.

Then we got past Lake Pukaki, after driving for half an hour or so, and suddenly the sky began to clear and we started getting glimpses of snow-covered peaks! I was so excited—here I’d been praying for good weather so we could have a worth-while trip and God gave us this:

It was breathtaking. I’ve never seen these mountains so cloud-free, or so snow-covered.

We went to the Tasman Glacier first, and as we drove to where the walk started we watched the temperature gauge go down to 1°C, and then creep back up to about 3–4°C as we came to the beginning of the walk.

It was about 10 am when we started walking, and even though it was cold—for me, at least—the sunshine and clear blue sky made up for any discomfort we might have had.

At the top! The sun was in the wrong place to get a very clear picture looking toward the glacier, and anyway this glacier is not really visible because it hides under the gravel. You can see the end of it, about in the middle of the picture at the far end of the lake, at the base of the mountains—mostly a big pile of rocks.

There were hardly any icebergs on the lake—less than usual, I believe, but the mountains…oh, the mountains! They were beautiful!

You can see Mount Cook—the highest mountain in New Zealand—close the middle of this picture, with the twin peaks and the snow billowing off the top.

Below is looking back the way we had come. The fog was most definitely confined to the area where Lake Pukaki was—obviously, the water was warmer than the air.

A close-up of Mount Cook.

After spending about an hour at the Tasman Glacier, we headed back around the end of the mountain and went to the Hooker Valley. This is always a gorgeous place as well. Below is a picture of Mueller Lake, with (I believe) Mount Sefton in the background. We walked along the Hooker river (bottom right corner of the picture) for the most part.

Had to get a couple pictures of each other while we were there to prove we had actually been there! :)

I think my brother was starved for snow or something. He took every opportunity he had to detour and grab a handful. Sadly, this was from a snow storm almost a month before, so it was old and crusty—most of what he was able to chip off ended up being dropped into the river from one or the other of the bridges we walked over.

Aunt L. decided she would be the first to get across the swinging bridge (so brother and I wouldn’t shake it while she was on it!), so she took off running when we got close. My brother chased her, and I had to stop to get a quick picture before joining in the chase myself.

The picture on the left is from the first swinging bridge, looking up the Hooker River toward Mueller Lake.

Left picture: The second swinging bridge. Right: Looking upstream from the second bridge.

I doubt I’ll ever get tired of mountains.

The snow blowing off the mountains was beautiful! And I was very glad to know it was clouds of snow, not rain.

View of Mount Cook from the Hooker Valley.

On the way back, I found the different colors of scree very interesting—obviously, there is some iron in parts of it to form the reddish tinge.

Welcome to the “Smallest Bridge in the World” (it was later destroyed so that it could be dropped into the Hooker River from the bridge on the way back).

After spending about an hour at the Hooker Valley, we headed north once again about noon, stopping only once for gas at Lake Tekapo. Then on to Arthur’s Pass so we could get across the mountains before the snow storm that was on the way could block roads. There was snow along the road for a ways, and some grit near the top of the pass where there had obviously been snow or ice for a little while, but we arrived safe and sound around 7 pm at a friend’s place in Hokitika. Close to seven hours on the road was enough for me, but we made it!

Bed felt really good that night.

So concludes the first two days of our flying five-day trip. Even though I was tired, I was enjoying every minute—after all, you don’t always get the joy of showing people where to go in order to see the best of the country! Being with my aunt, her friend, and my brother was also pretty special, too.

I’m not promising that I’ll be able to share more, but I can promise I’ll do my very best to share more pictures. I took well over 500 pictures and videos on this particular trip, and condensing even just 100 pictures into 20 has been a bit of a chore. However, I enjoy it—and hope you enjoy the glimpse into this beautiful country I live in as well!

Soli Deo Gloria.
Esther