Mt Cook Village and the Hooker Valley Track - mountian and glacier exploring

Positioned in the heart of the glacier valley Mount Cook Village is a functional service town with a vast array of accommodation options. What Mount Cook Village may lack in colourful character though it certainly makes up for in location. The scenery here is colossal in proportion, almost as limitless as the mountains of New Zealand’s Southern Alps that tower above. To my naked eye it made everything man-made in this area look mightily insignificant. Even campervans as they crawled along the valley roads appeared as ants streaming across a floor. This was the kind of absorbing scenery that made me want to get out into the great outdoors and so I embarked on the 10km, three-hour return Hooker Valley Track. The well-formed pathway traversed through tussock grassland and around humps and ridges (known as moraine and created over time by glacial rock and debris). Mountains loomed overhead with glaciers tumbling down their sides. Mount Cook National Park has the highest mountain range in New Zealand with nineteen peaks reaching over 3,000 metres above sea level. I encountered alpine lakes created by the ice melt from the glaciers. And throughout the valley the roar of the mighty Hooker River was never far from earshot. I crossed its gushing flow no fewer than three times as purpose-built swing bridges took me back and forth. This was a particularly exhilarating experience on the way back when the wind picked up and howled its way through the valley which made the bridge crossing more of a white-knuckle ride with a tight grip being the order of the day. The track ended at the Hooker Lake which appeared suddenly in front of me as I rounded a corner. Up above was the commanding peak of Mount Cook otherwise known as Aoraki, the largest mountain in New Zealand and instinctively the most recognizable. Hooker Lake was the perfect spot for a brief respite and the taking of the prerequisite photographs before heading back down the track and to the comparable calm of the Mount Cook Village.