Mount Cook: Of glaciers and icebergs

Mount Cook - my favourite stop in our South Island trip. Mountain. Glacier. Serene. Breathtaking... and ignore that car.

New Zealand's highest mountain - Mount Cook is my favourite stop in our little trip to South Island. It stands at 3,754 metres, together with other 27 other mountains making up the famous Southern Alps.

One could bring this a notch up by taking a helicopter ride or experience the Tasman Glacier at by boat. This boat ride however, has age restriction and little niece is way too young to be part of it. She, however, meets the criteria for heli ride, but the weather did not. The clouds were hanging too low for heli rides, so we were left with walks and hikes.

It was already a long drive and we had a little treasure hunt detour, we were kind of running late. The only bonus was it was in summer and the sun set at a later time.

We met a couple at the beginning of a trail and asked if we can take a pic of their map :P

We didn't have any map with us, but did asked for a direction to some walking trails. We were suppose to go all the way to Hooker Valley Road, but we felt that we have gone for a long time and thought it was time to turn. So we had jumped the gun and turned a little too early into the gravel road.

It was a little scary that we have driven for awhile and there were no cars in sight. The one car we saw in front of us, just went zoomed and out of sight. We all nodded in agreement that everybody in New Zealand drive like they tofu delivery driver (Read: Takumi Fujiwara in Initial D) = ="

Cross the bridge and let it go... lol

All the way till the public shelter near the parking area.

Public washroom with a magnificent view once you step outside

I didnt make a note but I think we did walk number 2 - Tasman Glacier Terminal Lake. I think it took about 40-50 mins return with my short legs, and I did keep up with my sister's longer legs. Grin. BIL had a bump knee so he decided to give it a skip and stayed with little niece in the car. This was the only trail we did, unfortunately.

Walking in the Middle Earth

It almost feel like there was no end to the trail but we were wrong. The end of the trail was near and despite not doing the boat or heli ride, seeing the icebergs floating in the lake is a very rewarding short walk indeed.

It started drizzling by then, we had to reach our next stop before it was too dark, BIL and little niece were waiting at the parking area or we would have stayed longer. We made our way back, to reach back the parking area at an agreed time, and make our way to our next stop.

 

Next stop - Wanaka.


Side note: 55555 (in Cantonese, 5 is pronounced as mm. So this is read as mm mm mm mm mm, as in nodding your head. Cute eh ;)