Chapter 7: Hiking Through Hooker Valley Track @ Majestic Mount Cook (Part 2)

1st December 2015

The first few minutes seemed ok. Even though the weather was pretty hot, it was bearable. Hey, we are from sunny Singapore, this hot weather is nothing to us. Here are my travel mates walking in front of me. I always like to walk slowly, thus I often end up being the last one in a group. I love it because it allows me to take photos like these.

Just 10 minutes of walking and I could not stop taking photos of everything from every angle because …… gorgeous.

We are here at our first pit stop! I never miss the chance to read everything on signages such as this so that I can understand what I am seeing a little bit better. If you are a true blue traveler, you would understand what I mean.

We were literally stunned. The skies, the vast landscape, the perfectly coloured sky, it was stunning. At moments like this, there are no exchange of words amongst us, just silence to simply appreciate the scene right before our eyes. This is the Mueller Lake lookout.

This was honestly the most beautiful nature’s art I have ever seen in my life. I had no idea what better things were in store for me.

Honestly, I had no intention of completing the entire trail, because firstly I was walking too damn slow compared to the rest as I stopped to take photos every 5 minutes. Secondly, I was not blessed with the best of knee health. I simply wanted to enjoy the walk and not be in a hurry to get to the destination.

We were so stoked by the amazing views. What could be more beautiful that this?!! It was all like a painting, right before our very eyes. I knew Mount Cook is one of highly popular destinations among hikers and tourists and now I truly understood why.

We arrived at this swing bridge. It would have been a stroll, but it was windy and the bridge was moving along with the wind.

The view from the bridge. I had to hold onto my camera tightly, yeah call me paranoid but better be safe than sorry.

We continued walking happily,thinking to ourselves that we have seen the best part of this trail.

Believe it or not, we arrived at our second swing bridge! The wind seemed to have subsided thus we had more guts to pose for photos while standing on the bridge lol.

Actually I may seem like I knew what I was doing but frankly I had no idea how much longer we would take to reach the final pitstop. By this time we were starting to get tired and we were as thirsty as camels in a desert. I only had half a bottle of water because I did not want to drink too much water while being in the wild with no toilets. The bestie had no water bottle at all. Oh our brilliance.

Still, I was reluctant to stop halfway because I have travelled to many beautiful places and the magnificent views of Mount Cook surpasses them all!

Can you see the tiny hut below? That was the one and only toilet along the Hooker Valley Track! I refused to go inside regardless of how urgent I needed to pee. Lol.

We arrived at the third swing bridge!

We were thick skinned enough to ask the hikers we met along the way on how much further and longer it would take for us to reach the end of this trail. Most of them were 20 years our senior, yet way more ridiculously fitter than us.

By this time, the wind was getting stronger and we had to pause before getting on the bridge. In fact the wind was so strong, it completely blew off my cap that was tightly fitted onto my head. Gosh. The clouds were starting to gather and I was intrigued by how fast the weather changes. We decided to wait for a while, not sure if we wanted to continue walking.

We did continue! Thanks to the hikers walking back who was cheering us on lol. They keep saying that it would only take 10 minutes of walk but we were continuously walking for 30 minutes and we have yet to arrive. Thanks lol.

After what seemed like an endless trail, we finally arrived!!

A kind elderly couple from New Zealand’s North Islands were actually with us all the way. They offered to help us take this photo and also offered us water. We must have looked really tired, thirsty and pathetic. Lol.

The view was wow. It was cloudy and it did look like it was going to rain. From where we were standing, the whole scenery before our eyes looked like a volcano since the lake looked greyish.

We rested for a while. The aching in our legs was quickly forgotten by the magnificent views, really. The elderly couple were playing with this block of ice. How nice. How wonderful would it be to be doing this at their age. Before they left, they passed that block of ice to us!

The bestie had the crazy idea to go down to the lake, even though we were tired as hell and there was no one to carry me down.

Actually I was still thinking but the bestie had already started to make her way down. Oh well, since I am already here.

Look how tiny she looked next to these landscapes!

Perhaps I will upload photos of us by the lake in another entry. We had to quickly take photos because it had started to drizzle. I wished we had time to sit by the lake to enjoy the glorious views of Mount Cook and the floating blocks of ice in the lake. Unfortunately, we had no raincoat or umbrella and the temperature seemed to be dropping rapidly. Check out the mist!

Looks like we had to quickly walk back.

The full Hooker Valley walk took us 4.5 hours to return. The track leads up the Hooker Valley, along the Hooker River and ends at the glacier lake. We were constantly advised by fellow hikers to quickly finish the track as the weather was unpredictable. It started off pretty sunny but by the time we reached the glacier, it was cloudy, raining and cold.

On our way back, the weather changed again, this time to our favour!

Walking back was equally amazing. I knew we had walked the same trails before a few hours ago, but walking back, the sceneries looked different from different angles.

By the time we were back at the car, it had started to rain again. My legs, body and even hair were all aching but I had no regrets persisting to continue the trail till the end because it was simply worth it.

Everyone should hike this trail at least once in their lifetime! The trail is mostly flat and well formed but some sections were rocky and muddy. Wear good shoes and bring raincoat and water. Lol.