Hooker Valley Track- Aoraki/Mt Cook

Catch-up

After walking to Kea Point in the early morning I later walked the very popular Hooker Valley Track with David, up the Hooker Valley to the Hooker Glacier Lake where there are fabulous views of Mt Cook and the surrounding mountains.

The track starts near the White Horse Hill DOC Campground…

…and passes by the original site of the Hermitage Hotel where a plaque and information board mark the spot.

A little further on there are views back down the valley to the ‘new’ Hermitage Hotel.

We also pass Freda’s Rock where her now famous photo was taken; I try a similar pose. Freda du Faur was the first woman to climb Aoraki/Mt Cook, an amazing feat for 1910, and I’d say, especially so achieving it wearing that skirt! I saw a TV programme on Freda’s accomplishment awhile ago and I recall the researchers mentioning that she wasn’t given the acknowledgment she should have had at the time due to the fact that she was an un-married woman climbing with two male guides. It was even suggested that she might have been having a ménage à trois with them; after all they were sleeping in a tent on the mountain with no chaperones. Tut, tut!

As we start a gentle climb up the path, Mt Cook finally comes into view. This would have been my first sight up close had I not walked to Kea Point earlier in the day.

Our next stop is at the Alpine Memorial where there are far too many plaques remembering the people who have lost their lives on Mt Cook & the nearby mountains. Since these photos were taken, three more people have died in the area this summer.

The memorial overlooks Mt Cook village, the Hermitage and all the way down to Lake Pukaki on the horizon.

The Hooker Valley Track is 5kms long and is one of the most popular walks in the National Park. The track is well formed, rising and falling often as it crosses the ridges and humps of the old moraine walls. There are numerous steps to climb and three large swing-bridges to cross along the way.

While all the information says to allow 3 hours (return) to walk it, I would add an extra hour so you don’t have to rush and can stop and take in the fabulous scenery along the way. And even though it looks like it’s an easy walk, you do need to have sturdy footwear; not the jandals (flip-flops) I saw on the feet of a couple of people. I even saw a pair of high-heels on one woman. I bet she didn’t get far.  Also, take a snack or lunch and plenty of water; it’s hot work on a warm day. I gave some of my water to a couple of girls who had finished their one only small bottle well before they arrived at the end.

The Spaniard/Taramea were in full flower, their spikes stabbing at a few unwary people along the way.

Soon we have our first sight of the Mueller Glacier Lake below Mt Sefton. You’ll remember this is the lake I saw below the platform when I walked to Kea Point. Mueller Glacier is tucked around the corner to the left, as is Kea Point; behind and on top of the gravel moraine wall. The Hooker River flows out of the lake at the bottom right...

…where the first of the three swingbridges cross the river.

I bet you thought that was a fairly small river and swingbridge; the people, including David, give both of them some perspective here.

The river is a rough bubbling grey torrent as it flows beneath the bridge, some of those boulders are the size of small cars. Mt Sefton towers high above the lake behind.

It’s a great day for a walk. And there are plenty of people coming and going along the track. Many tourists are in the National Park just for the day and the pressure is on to complete all the short walks in the valley.

We approach the 2nd swingbridge, this bridge crosses the Hooker River just before it enters Mueller Lake…

The flow here is also a roaring torrent, both upstream…

…and towards it’s outlet into Mueller Lake. Once again it’s hard to get a sense of scale here, but across the lake on the lower plateau to the right, is the Kea Point lookout where I ended up this morning.

I took this photo from Kea Point earlier in the day- you can see the Hooker River outlet across the lake and in the background the swingbridge which I have only just spotted!

Once across the bridge, around a few corners and up and down a few rises, we finally have a clear view up the valley to Mt Cook.

And now I must apologise for the amount of photos I’ve included in this post……but you should have seen how many I started with!

The scenery in all directions is just jaw-droppingly spectacular; Mt Cook, the icing on the cake.

And of course a walk in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park wouldn’t be complete without seeing one of New Zealand’s most well known alpine plants, the Mt Cook lily itself, nicely placed for me to shoot with Mt Cook in the background.

The endemic Mt Cook Lily is not a lily at all, but a giant buttercup which can grow to over a metre tall with leaves the size of dinner plates. As we get closer to the head of the valley there are more and more flowering lily growing in amongst the alpine scrub.

Ahead of us the third swingbridge makes an appearance.

Mt Cook looms overhead as David strides it out.

There are many smaller streams entering the Hooker River from the surrounding mountains, one tumbles down a scree slide disappearing into the gravel midway down.

What a view! But DOC really should have thought about where they located the loos at Stocking Stream Day Shelter.

Now that’s a better shot.

A boardwalk crosses delicate alpine herb fields and tussock wetlands.

The third swingbridge crosses the Hooker River just below it’s outlet from the glacier lake…

…it is also a swift moving torrent of dirty grey water.

We’re getting close…

…one last haul up and over the top…

…and there’s the lake…and around the corner…

…there’s a whole heap of people! We’re definitely back in tourist country.

Selfies are being taken left, right & centre, some are sitting on the rocks lower down doing yoga or mediating, others just stand & take in the views. We feel a bit self-conscious when we take a space at the table and pull out our packed lunch & thermos while others are chewing on a muesli bar…or their nails. The beauty of towing our home behind us; we nearly always have a full pantry!

Across the lake we can see the dirty blue ice face of the Hooker Glacier.

Some have walked down to the lake edge for a paddle (brrr…..) and over to the river outlet at the far right. One of the guys brings back an ice block (berg) he’s rescued from the lake. We all have a hold and leave it in the middle of the table for fellow hikers to handle before it melts.

After an awesome hike to the lake in hot temperatures(for a mountain), the weather starts to close in and rain threatens, so we pack up and head back down the trail. I look back as the wind whips past us and rain and cloud overtake Mt Cook’s peak- known as the ‘cloud piercer’, I can see why.

We pass a steady stream of people still coming up the track and over the bridges- many with throw-away rain ponchos on, it’s a pity they weren’t just a few minutes earlier. While the walk is great I’m not so sure I’d be happy to find that the pièce de résistance, Mt Cook, wasn’t on view at the end. I guess most people have no choice; it is the luck of the draw.

And one last multi-photo frame with some of the native flowering plants I found along the way….well, almost all native. I have no idea how the blue ‘Granny’s Bonnet’ managed to find itself near the path on the side of a mountain.

Magical Mountains - Kea Point

This will be the last post for a few days. The rain has finally stopped (9 days give or take a couple of afternoons) and we're off to the wops and no reception again. 

Catch-up

I was so enthralled with the mountains and the beautiful scenery right outside the van I couldn’t sleep the first night we were parked up at the White Horse Hill DOC camp at Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. This was the magical view from my bedroom window, I left the blind up so I could see Mt Sefton sparkling and shimmering in the moonlight at the end of the valley. In the end, with sleep eluding me, I thought I might as well make the most of it. I dressed and got my camera gear together and stepped outside to take some night shots in the peace and stillness of a calm and clear night. This one was taken at 2am!

The temperature was very mild considering the time and where we were, beside the Southern Alps, the night sky a beauty with a million twinkling stars above. Looking down the valley towards the Tasman River plain and Lake Pukaki.

I crept about the carpark trying to keep the gravel crunch of my footsteps to a minimum, there were a few sleeper vans parked in the day carpark with us. I’m sure if any of the others sleeping soundly in the cars had looked out and seen me, they’d wonder what the crazy lady was doing moving about their vehicles and shining a light over the 5th-wheeler. I did some light painting of the van with my head torch, watched the moon rise above the mountains behind me and took more photos of Mt Sefton in the beautiful moonlight.

I returned to bed but still couldn’t sleep and as I watched dawn approaching I was up again and back out with my camera to catch sunrise. I hadn’t seen Mt Cook yet but I knew it was visible from Kea Point and I was hoping to get there to catch the pink hue of sunrise on our tallest mountain.

I thought I’d walk to Kea Point, the 20 minute walking track exited the carpark right beside our van. But I took too long getting ready and taking photos of Mt Sefton again.  Before I knew it the sun was rising without me. Blast! Never mind, I managed to catch the pink hue on Mt Sefton instead. These were taken at 5:30am.

I hurried on up the track anyway, startling a number of rabbits along the way. The track passes through landscape that was formed in 1913 when a stream cut through from the Mulleur Glacier to the original Hermitage Hotel site, damaging the building and forcing the new hotel to be built further down the valley and off to the side. A bonus was that the hotel now has fantastic views of Mt Cook.

A short time later I rounded a corner to see my first close up view of the majestic Aoraki/Mt Cook towering above the ridge ahead of me, the sun warming it’s eastern slopes.

Beautiful Aoraki/Mt Cook lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island, and is New Zealand tallest mountain at 3724 metres.

The Kea Point walk climbs gradually up through sub-alpine grasslands and scrub to finish at a lookout platform on the edge of the Mueller Glacier moraine wall.

The platform is high above the Mueller Glacier Lake, the opposite moraine wall and Mt Cook behind, are across the wide expanse.

Across the lake to the right and at the base of Mt Wakefield(2012m) is the Hooker River outlet, the river flows from the Hooker Glacier Lake which is at the top end of the Hooker Valley and at the base of the Hooker Glacier, on the west side of Mt Cook. The Tasman Glacier is on the east side.

There are stunning 360 degree views from the viewing deck.

There’s Mt Sefton(3151m) and The Footstool (the right hand peak) and the Mueller Glacier which is around the corner and out of view. High up on the sides of Mt Sefton I can see the dirty blue of glacial ice. There’s nothing here to give these photos scale but believe me everything is on a grand scale- extremely high and and very deep. A person in the valley below would just be a speck on the landscape.

Behind me I can see the track up to the Sealy Tarns, a gut-busting near vertical track to the top of the Mueller Ridge which takes 3-4 hours return for a fit person, everyone else it would be all day…if you made it. The track runs up the deep gully to a lower ridge and then you can see it tracking along the top, apparently there are some amazing views from up there but you won’t be seeing them from me anytime soon. I spot a moving dot of blue and zoom in to see a person stepping it out, the only sign of life I see for the next couple of hours.

But it’s Mt Cook that steals the scene and I can’t stop clicking especially when the clouds suddenly streak out from behind it.

I have the whole place to myself which is surprising, considering the amount of people back in the camp and the fact that it’s now approaching 7am on what is going to be a beautiful day. I sit there in the peace & quiet contemplating this magical place and soaking up the atmosphere and the cool mountain air. I’m also thinking about the climber that has been reported missing on Mt Cook a couple of days beforehand, he’s up there somewhere. And sadly his body was found a day or so later. Another life taken by a mountain that draws the adventurous in.

I set my tripod up to take a selfie….well you can’t visit Mt Cook for the very first time and not record the event can you? And sit there for another half an hour or so. I still can’t believe I have the place to myself or understand why nobody has arrived, I thought they’d at least be a photographer or two to catch the sunrise.

Finally after a couple hours by myself I head back down to camp and as I round a corner I spot two people coming up the track towards me…can you see them? On the far right.

I turn around after they have passed me and zoom in to take a shot of them approaching the top of the track and the view of Mt Cook.

Further down, the view opens up and the morning sun is already warming the Hermitage Hotel up across the valley.

The only other people I see before I get back home is this lovely couple who have only made it a short distance up the track before they’ve had to take a break. They are thinking of not continuing on but I encourage them to take it slowly and rest often, because there’s no way they’d want to miss the fantastic views at the other end. They chuckle and kid each other and want me to take a photo of them on their camera, which I do. Then I say goodbye and carry on, looking back just before I disappear around a bend to see that they’re still sitting there on the rock waving and laughing at me!