What We Did With One Night At Mount Cook Village

Mount Cook (or Aoraki in Māori) is the tallest mountain in New Zealand- how could this beautiful and sacred spot not be on our list of places to visit on our travels?!

As part of our 10 Day South Island Road Trip, Mt Cook was scheduled for day two. We had a great time here and to see this huge landmark of natural Kiwi beauty is a must do on any South Island trip.

This article is going to chat about what we did when we visited Mount Cook, what we thought about Mount Cook village and give you directions on how to get there. It is also going to give a breakdown on how we found walking the Hooker Valley Track, as it was probably one of the easiest and more accessible walking tracks that we have done since being in New Zealand!

Mt Cook was the second stop on our 10 Day Road Trip. We travelled here from our night at Lake Tekapo which you can read about here.

Table of Contents

The History of Mount Cook

The Māori legend of Mount Cook is that when Aoraki and his three brothers came from the sky on their te waka (a canoe) to visit papatauanuku (the earth mother). Their te waka crashed and overturned. When they climbed on top of it the freezing winds froze them to stone, and they became the southern alps. Aoraki being the tallest brother meant the tallest mountain was named after him.

Mount Cook is significant to Māori culture because of this and is considered tapu. The tapu (tapu is interpreted as ‘sacred’ or a sort of spiritual restriction) associated with Mount Cook can be seen as the physical manifestation of the ancestor and the source the power over life and death that the mountain possesses.

Due to this, it is actually no longer allowed for mountaineers to stand on the top. This is because Mount Cook is effectively an ancestor, therefore it is not appropriate to stand on the head of an ancestor. Being that the head is considered very tapu.

Despite this rule nowadays, it does have a history with climbing. The first attempt to reach the summit of this mountain was attempted in 1882. The party made it to within 20 metres of the top so it does not count. It was not until 1894 when the summit was actually reached. The names of these men were Tom Fyfe, Jack Clarke and George Graham.

Travelling to Mount Cook / The Hooker Valley Track

Our Journey

Having left Lake Tekapo in the morning, we drove approximately an hour and a half to Mount Cook Village. This is where you will find the Hooker Valley Track. Our journey saw us drive down State Highway 8 to just before Twizel which took us around the bottom of Lake Pukaki, and then State Highway 80 which took us up the other side of the lake until we reach Mount Cook Village.

Lake Pukaki

Before we talk about our time at Mount Cook though, Lake Pukaki is worth a mention. It was the main tourist stop along the way, and it was magical. Vast and extremely blue, we recommend stopping at multiple places around here if you have the time. There are signs for lookout spots all the way around it.

The reason the lake is so blue is because when the snow melts off of the mountains, the water brings with it some of the ultra-fine silt particles called glacial flour. Since it is so fine, it doesn’t sink to the bottom of the lake but rather floats and allows the light to reflect off, producing that shimmery turquoise colour… So cool! Hence why the colour of Lake Pukaki really does depend on the weather. On a really sunny day, Lake Pukaki will come into its own and glimmer the tropical island blue you’ll see if you Google it. Sadly, as you can see it was quite overcast for us… We’re not bitter at all.

We could actually see Mt Cook from the other side of Lake Pukaki which was really cool. A looming, snowy peaked beauty in the distance. The remaining drive was fun as we were driving straight towards Mount Cook and ever so slowly it was getting bigger and bigger.

Hooker valley track

The Hooker Valley Track is a 10km round trip that takes you to the Hooker Lake at the base of Mount Cook. Here you’ll find an area with benches to stop and eat your lunch with a few glaciers floating around. We chose this track because we have a few big hikes planned on our road trip, and this one seemed quite easy. And it was!

The Walk

The Hooker Valley Track was genuinely a really easy walk- even Jess didn’t complain too much! It is really flat for the most part and actually has some wooden paths for ease of walking. Along this walk you will find plenty of swing bridges, lots of tourists and some crazy beautiful scenery. You can see Mount Cook for most of the walk, but as the path zig zags so it does fall out of sign a few times but not too many. We passed so many epic rivers running that ultra blue mountain water down and into the valley behind us.

What You Will Need

We arrived prepared for a HIKE. But we got there and realised how accessible this path actually is. We still used our walking boots, coats, hats, gloves etc but we passed some people walking it in Vans and minimal clothing. So, it really is up to you. Personally, I’m glad we had layers and good shoes.

Layers are always important as the conditions in these areas can change quickly. We did take some off but really needed them when we stopped at the end of the track where it was bitterly cold and did start to rain lightly.

How Long Does it Take?

We walked the Hooker Valley Track in two hours and forty minutes. This does not include time spent at the Lake where we took lots of pictures and had a bite to eat.

Mount Cook Village

As we had driven straight to the Hooker Valley Track from Lake Tekapo and started walking, we explored Mt Cook Village afterwards. Admittedly, there isn’t an awful lot there as it’s only very small.

Where We Stayed

We booked at the Hermitage Hotel, and stayed in one of their motels which is located slightly away from the hotel itself. If we return to Mt Cook, it would be awesome to stay in the actual hotel as it looked pretty fancy and is directly facing Mt Cook. Also great if you (like us) want to enjoy some drinks with the view.

Even still, our room was pretty comfortable! I don’t think we realised when we booked that a ‘family motel’ meant a bed in the living room/ lounge area, so we had to flip a coin on who got the bedroom and who got the bed in the lounge area (we won, for anyone interested). It had a good cooking space where we whipped up a storm of bean burritos and salad and made some overnight oats for the morning.

What We Did After the Walk

Once we had finished our hike to see Mount Cook in all its glory, we got our motel room keys and dumped our bags. It was still daylight, so we went back up to the hotel itself, where there was the bar and an Edmund Hillary Museum. We did not go into the museum like we had planned as it was $25 for what seemed like not a lot and given that we only really had half an hour left before it closed, we decided against it. If this was an error and it is an absolute must see, then let us know!

We then sat in the bar and had front row seats of Mt Cook as we were right in front of the window! Not a bad spot at all for a post hike pint. As the night progressed, we had some fun gin martinis. Jess had an Oyster Gin from AULD and mine used gin from Cardrona Distillery, which we are visiting later this week. Both were delicious!

We then headed back to our room where we cooked, ate, and then retired for bed. A successful day!

What is At Mount Cook Village?

As mentioned, it is quite small. I have summarised everything that is there below so hopefully that is useful!

Places to Stay

Things to Do

I have also included a link to Department of Conservation document which gives a good overview of walks and facts about Mount Cook for those who want a bit more official information!

Overall…

Our time here was short and sweet due to the nature of our road trip, but we loved it here. It was so cool getting right in the thick of the mountains and obviously seeing the biggest of them all here in New Zealand.

Next stop: Queenstown!