The plan was a 6-hour road trip to Aoraki Mt Cook National Park to check out the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps and the glacial blue Pukaki Lake. It was an area of the country that wasn’t on our original itinerary. New Zealand, despite being small, is actually difficult to navigate. North to South is easy but East to West is foiled by the Southern Alps that run down the spine of the island. There are only two or three places that you can cut across from one side to the other. We had made the decision to drive up the West coast of the country on this trip, which cut out Mt. Cook, Central Otago and the famous glacial lakes. I thought it was a choice that we would have to make, but I agonized over it. Dave and I studied maps and went back and forth on our plan. We finally decided that this may be our one chance to see this place, so we opted to make a big out and back trip from Queenstown one day. It would be a lot of driving, but from everything we’ve read, it was beautiful country. Dave was game, so I was game.
We finished breakfast, stopped at a grocery store to grab some sandwiches for lunch and hit the road by 8:30 a.m. The nice thing about New Zealand in the summertime is that it stays light until well after 10 p.m, so the days are long and we can pack them full of activity. I’m typing this blog at 8:30 p.m. as we are on our way back to Queenstown and the sun is still high in the sky.
On the three-hour drive to Mt. Cook, we felt like we were chasing the morning clouds and rain all the way. But we were hopeful. Clouds kept breaking up in our rear view mirror and we were leaving blue skies behind us. Maybe we’d have a clear day by the time we got to the park. In the meantime, we were pretty socked in the entire drive. We could tell that the landscape around us was beautiful, but we couldn’t quite see all of it. The clouds did make it dramatic, but we weren’t able to appreciate the whole scale of what surrounded us. What we did see were rolling hills of gold and green with clouds slinking in and out of the valleys. And along the side of the road, thousands of pink, purple, white and yellow lupines traced through the seams in the hills like creek beds. We drove through without lingering and carried hope that the return trip would be bathed in light.
The closer we got to the park and the lakes, the worse the
weather turned. Clouds lowered, rain poured and wind blew. Off in the in
distance, blue skies began to open over far away mountain peaks, but the
direction we were headed was drowning in pea soup.
The landscape was dramatic. Despite the clouds, we could
tell that the almost 30-mile long lake was turquoise blue and that the peaks
towered up on either side with snow capped tops. And the valley opened up
toward the glaciers with pale blue rivers roaring down the slopes. It was all
there, but it was blanketed in fog and chilling rain. We pulled into the
parking lot for our planned hike – the Hooker Valley Track and decided to sit
in the car for an hour. Maybe the clear skies would finally catch up. It was
only Noon. ![]() |
The final drive into the pea soup in the park. |
At one o’clock the clouds obscured even more of the
mountains and the rain was steady and sometimes torrential. The mountains were
not going to let the weather get away. And we weren’t about to make the whole
trip for nothing. So we bundled up in rain gear, covered the camera and lenses
in plastic and headed off down the trail in the rain. We got a 15-min break
from the weather, but otherwise, we trudged forward in the wet.
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The wet hike into the Hooker Valley Track. |
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Our 15 mins of clearing skies, looking down the valley toward Lake Pukaki. |
The trail was still worth it. As the clouds drifted by we caught glimpses of the deeps blues of the glaciers in the peaks above and every once in awhile sun would peak out way off in the valley, illuminating the turquoise lake in the distance. If you listened closely, every once in awhile you could hear the low rumble of the glacial ice moving, even above the roar of the river. It was a magical place.
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Dave with the glacial snow fields in the peaks behind him. |
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A magical place. |
The trail included a suspension bridge over the quickly
moving, and very full river. I thought I was okay with it, until I reached the
middle, felt the power of the river moving quickly about 70 feet below me and a
gust of wind gently pushed the bridge side to side. Deep breaths, look straight
ahead, and I kept walking to the other shore.
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The suspension bridge on the Hooker Valley Track. |
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I'm still smiling, but holding on. |
The further back we got toward Hooker Valley and the
completely hidden Mt. Cook, the worse the weather got. Wind was ripping down
the valley carrying sheets of rain. We turned our back to the wind and let it
beat against our coats. We kept plowing forward, and turned a corner and came
across two more, much larger, suspension bridges. Longer, higher up and right
in the thick of the wind. I told Dave that was it for me. So we turned around
and headed back to the car. It was worth the two hours of exploring, but we were
shivering and wet and ready to warm up. Luckily there was a lodge down the road
and hot chocolates and chili nachos did the trick.
We started to head back around 5 p.m., and the further we
got away from the mountains, the more the blue skies that had been hiding all
day began to show up. The valleys that were cloaked in mist on the drive up
were wide open and shimmering in light and shadow on the way back. We stopped
many times along the way and took too many pictures. Around every corner, the
landscape and sunlight and clouds revealed a completely different story than
just a few hours before.
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Lake Pukaki slices the landscape in a turquoise blue. |
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The hills shrowded in clouds on the way to the park were now visible and dramatic in the afternoon sun. |
The sun started to drop in the sky and cast beautiful
shadows over a lake that had once seemed nondescript – showing off the snowy
peaks high above that we hadn’t even realized were there. We pulled over to
capture the image. And just as we were climbing back into the car, two giant
rainbows appeared at the North end of the lake. The clouds gave us one last
gift as they departed.
Despite the rain, the road trip was worth it. We should be
arriving back into Queenstown around 9 p.m., still light out, and we will look
for something to eat. And as much as I love rainbows, here’s hoping for a sunny
day tomorrow.
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Lupines in the late-day sun. |
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A lake with snow capped peaks behind it. |
You have an adventurous spirit!
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