New Zealand, Mount Cook: Aoraki, the Cloud-Piercing Mountain

Mount Cook was the tallest peak on the left-hand side of this photograph, but it was by no means that only point of interest near Lake Pukaki
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After having arrived at the Lake Pukaki I-Site (information centre) at midnight the night before, we were surprised when we woke up in the morning and saw a beautiful sight in front of us. Lake Pukaki was an enormous lake inside Mount Cook National Park that was formed from runoff of three enormous ice formations: Hooker Glacier, Tasman Glacier and Murchison Glacier.

As a result of the source, the lake was an unusually bright and light shade of blue, and the water was very clear. That morning and throughout the day, the lake was very calm and, as we left the national park later in the day, we saw impressive reflections of the mountains on its surface.

There was a pristine glacial bay surrounded by glacial ice, with several large icebergs floating in the water

We had many opportunities to stop and take photographs along the way to Mount Cook National Park
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The spectacular Mount Cook National Park was part of the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage Area, where four huge national parks have joined forces to create the protected natural area. Known in Maori as Te Wahipounamu (the Place of Greenstone), the region measured 2.6 million hectares and was recognised as much for its cultural importance as for its extraordinary landscape, unique vegetation, and wildlife. The following national parks comprised the World Heritage Area: Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, Fiordland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Westland/Tai Poutini National Park.

We had arrived at Lake Pukaki late in the evening when everything was dark, so we had no idea that the morning would bring us this fantastic view
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Of the 27 New Zealand mountains over 9,500 feet high, 22 of them were in the national park and most of them were covered with a blanket of permanent snow and glacial ice. The mighty Mount Cook, which at around 11,700 feet was the highest peak in Australasia, was known to the Maori as Aoraki ("Cloud Piercer"), named after an ancestral deity in Maori mythology. Whilst we didn't see any wildlife during our hikes in the national park, we did see a lot of unique vegetation and delicate mountain flora, including the Mount Cook lily, a large mountain buttercup.

We saw the terminal face of the Tasman Glacier when we visited Mount Cook National Park
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To start our day, we ate a quick breakfast - cereal - inside our campervan and then drove to the car park at the Hooker Valley campsite to leave our vehicle behind and start our first hike of the day. Hooker Valley was created many years ago when the Hooker Glacier advanced several miles, cutting out a large open plain at the foot of the mountains.

During the first hike, which took us almost a couple of hours, we walked across a couple large suspension bridges that hung over a river that eventually fed Lake Pukaki. All around us were amazing views of snow-capped mountains, streams and valleys.

There were many beautiful flowers in New Zealand when we visited the country during spring
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When we returned to our campervan, we drove a few miles to another section of the national park so we could trek to the Tasman Glacier. The drive took us along a curvy, gravel road through the Tasman Valley and we crossed a couple of narrow one-lane bridges to get there. Before setting out on our hike, we made and ate tuna mayonnaise wraps and enjoyed the warmth of the afternoon whilst reading with the doors to our campervan open.

When we started walking, there were very few people around and we had many of the trails to ourselves, which was a nice way to see the park. To get closer to the Tasman Glacier, we walked just under an hour and climbed a couple of steep sections of the valley. We saw a few pools of emerald green water during our trek to the glacier, and we saw the glacier's terminal face at the end of the trail.

We did a hike in Hooker Valley but did not run into any illegal activities there
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High up, the Tasman Glacier was a predictably spectacular sweep of ice, but further down it was downright ugly. Glaciers in New Zealand have generally been retreating over the past century, but they are now advancing. Normally, as a glacier retreats, it melts back up the mountain, but the Tasman was unusual because its last few kilometres were almost horizontal.

So, in recent decades, it has melted from the top down, exposing a jumble of stones, rocks and boulders that creates a less pleasing appearance to the eye. You'll see from the photos in the album for this journal entry that the terminal face of the glacier, the end of it, was quite grey with no white colour to it, in contrast to the top of the glacier near the mountain peaks, where the ice was blindingly white.

There were several places in Mount Cook National Park where the mountainsides were covered with loose stones
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At the foot of the glacier, there was a pristine glacial bay surrounded by glacial ice, with several large icebergs floating in the water. We had climbed up a hill to gain views of the glacier and could see the entire terminal face from our vantage point. We could also see the Tasman Valley behind us and the emerald pools we had passed earlier in our hike.

After a few minutes standing there and admiring the view, we started our descent and returned to the start of the trail to leave the national park. After the two hikes and spectacular views, we felt satisfied with our visit and started driving towards our next destination, Dunedin.