I don’t need to tell you Mt Cook National Park is a staple of any New Zealand road trip. Any travel book will assert that indisputable fact. I can however, paint a picture of what particular details have hooked in us travellers for decades.
To list all the reasons you should visit Mt Cook:
Mt Cook village is right in the centre of a valley in the Southern Alps. As far as the eye can see, circling you, are some of the most stunning peaks in New Zealand, the likes of which are only comparable to the inaccessible remainder of the Southern Alps.
Mt Cook national park is part of the Mackenzie dark sky reserve. It is so remote that the night sky is completely unpolluted by light for miles and miles. The shocking wonder of this sky will practically smack you in the face. You will be starstruck in the truest sense of the term.
Bunnies. Need I say more? Fields and fields of bunnies hopping about the brush. Some of which are not too spooked by us nosy travellers.
The road to Mt Cook is the ultimate entrée for the hungry traveller. Mt Cook village is completely remote and there is only one road in which traverses lake pukaki. As you drive, Mt Cook and all the surrounding alps can be seen in the distance. As you get closer, the mountains practically tower above the road.
Camping at the foot of Mt Sefton. White horse hill campground sits beyond the village with Mt Sefton directly behind it and Mt Cook to its right. In less than 5 steps from your van you can be looking at some of the most beautiful views in New Zealand. This makes for some incredible sunrise and sunset photography opportunities, which you well know I took advantage of.
Mt Cook national park is also home to New Zealand’s largest glacier, the Tasman glacier which can be viewed from across a stunningly turquoise lake.
Beyond these reasons, there is then the question of when to visit Mt Cook. We visited Mt Cook in mid summer, the beginning of winter and the deep middle of winter. Our first visit was on a beautifully sunny summer day and the park was painted in sunlight and the peaks lightly brushed with snow. Even in summer, we saw the most fascinating icebergs in Hooker lake. Our second visit was on a clear day after it had snowed the day before and the park was a winter wonderland made manifest. Even the ground was graced with a thick layer of snow which made for an amazing day hike. The third visit was too cold even for snow and hooker lake which lies at the foot of Mt Cook was completely frozen. We were able to walk onto the frozen lake and sit on the icebergs which was incredible. If possible, you should visit often and witness Mt Cook anew in every season.
Onto the subject of hiking, Mt Cook has options for everyone. It is most famed for the hooker valley track, which traverses the valley floor and three bridges over the hooker river and comes to a halt at hooker lake at the foot of Mt Cook. It is the classic Mt Cook snapshot, and the trek is undertaken by every visitor. It is a flat and short trail, with unmatched views every few feet. But Mt Cook’s hiking system is far more than the hooker valley trail. There are shorter walks like the Tasman glacier viewpoint, red tarn or kea point, all of which provide unique perspectives of New Zealand’s largest mountain.
For the brave, there is the ‘stairway to heaven’ that leads to Sealy tarn, a small tarn 2200 steps above the valley floor that overlooks Mt Sefton in the foreground and Mt Cook in the background. But this tarn is only the halfway point, the respite, on the track up to mueller hut. Mueller hut is a serviced alpine hut which you can book overnight and stay 1000m above the park. It offers the best panoramic views over Mt Cook. It is a feat we will be attempting in summer after completing Sealy tarn earlier this year.
I will likely never be able to sum up the beauty of Mt Cook national park in words. Unfortunately for your purse strings, it is one of those places that demands your visit to truly understand how incredible it is. I can, and have, written for hours in hyperbole about all the incredible places in New Zealand and Mt Cook is my favourite (barring Lake Marian). Mt Cook is the perfect postcard to encapsulate New Zealand’s essence, with conservation and natural phenomenon thousands of years in the making displayed at their finest.
