Hooker Valley Track

Located in the Mt Cook National Park the Hooker Valley Track is one of the most popular walking trails on the New Zealand South Island. As a visitor its impossible to not be left in awe of the towering mountains surrounding wide flat valleys created by glaciers moving across the landscape.

The beginning of Hooker Valley Track starts at the White Hill Campground a couple of kilometres away from the Mount Cook village. The walk offers a diverse range of Alpine scenery with views of Mount Cook itself and a number of surrounding mountains.

The walking trail crosses the Hooker River a number of times, offering views of Mueller Lake and glacier before ending at Hooker Lake. The main highlight of the lake being the numerous icebergs floating around its frigid waters in the warmer months. During the cold times of the year it is not uncommon for the Lake to freeze over completely.

The track is about 5 km each way and very flat with an elevation change of only 124m across its entire length. So its a really easy walk for everyone, we arrived early in the day and there was not many other people on the track.

The trip back to the car park saw things getting busier. But I definitely felt very privileged to be walking the track while the borders were shut due to Covid-19. The car park at the start had a number of bus parks so I imagine when tourism is in full swing the walk would normally be bustling with visitors.

On the downside thanks to the pandemic most of the accommodation in Mount Cook Village was closed or prohibitively expensive. So an early long distance drive ( thankfully scenic ) was required to get to the track.

But since the walk was so easy we still had enough energy remaining to stop and see the Tasman Glacier ( ~ 1km ). Before leaving the park to go find some lunch in the nearby town of Twizel.

All in all a great walk the scenery was breathtaking while the walk itself remained effortless….