There are multiple walks around the Aoraki Mt Cook National Park that suits any fitness level. It ranges from a lazy 10-min loop to an exhausting 3-4 hour hikes. The most famous trail is the Hooker Valley Track that takes about 4 hours return. You can either start from the Visitor Centre or the White Horse Hill carpark at the end of Hooker Valley Rd off State Highway 80. 

Family Pic at a road sign at Mt Cook Village

This place is particularly memorable, epecially for Kareena. Because unlike Maan, who used to live in Japan and has experienced snowstorms in multiple occassions, Kareena has never seen one. First thing she did was just to play around the snow. "So, this is what White Christmas feels like?" she said. The joy of an actual Christmas snowfall probably isn't even close to half of it, but why break her bubble, right?

Start of the track

This mostly flat stretch of ice and rocks provides a picture perfect backdrop of snowcapped mountains and picturesque glaciers. The well-formed tracks provides you with a scenic walk across the foothills of Mt Cook's terrain.

 Alpine Memorial

15-mins into the track is the Alpine Memorial, a good rest point. I know! You haven't even warmed up yet and here we are talking about where to stop. :) The memorial is perched atop a steep hill, which was proven to be difficult to climb without proper shoes, as it was very steep and some rock steps were icy.

Maan off the lens for now

SwingBridge

Hooker Valley Track takes you through multiple swingbridges over the Hooker River. Most people only go towards the First Swingbridge and return back to campground (takes roughly 30mins, return). Prior to reaching the First Swingbridge, there is an observation area for the first valley of glaciers that runs along the River. The track then descends down to a wooden staircase towards the bridge.

If you listen closely, you will hear the ever-changing landscape of glaciers falling and tumbling. Of nature changing its canvas and starting anew.

 At the First Swing Bridge

Kareena's sister, a lost bear!

As we are fat and very unhealthy people (bwahaha), we only took only went through the First Swingbridge and didn’t even bother going through. They say the view gets better as you move along. However, we can no longer differentiate the rumbling sounds between the falling glaciers and our tummies so we decided to hike back to the carpark. We suggest bringing in a good energy fuel when taking this route. We were famished by the time we went back to the campgrounds. 

The hike back 

Fallen snow angel! :)

 

#nofilter. #iphoneonly. Yep! Blest to have seen such beauty

Starving and tired from this hike, plus another 3-hr drive back to Queenstown, there was definitely no other option for us to ensure a good dinner other than with Fergburger!

Heaven in a bag!

And it is without a joke, THE BEST BURGERS WE’VE EVER TASTED! At the price of NZ$11-17 (U$7-12), its really cheap considering its humongous size! You would have paid double at a restaurant for its serving size but still wont get the same quality and taste you’ll get from Ferg’s! Simply the best! (notice we haven't ended our sentence with a period yet?! it's that good!!!) And now we're salivating!! hmmm..
 

08:01am and you can still see the moon

One thing that we, the MaKareena's, learnt from this trip was to research everything. And by everything, please kindly include the sunrise and sunset times of each day. Factors that we failed to consider whilst planning. Along with Kareena's parents and sister, we created an itinerary of a roadtrip from Queenstown towards Mt Aoraki starting at 07:00am. We planned for this 3-hour drive to include soaking up on all the God-given beauty rushing through our car window. And more importantly, catching the unsolicited first sun rays of the whole planet for the new day. Unfortunately, little did we know that sunrise does not start at the South Island not until 08:00am. Yep, still not a fullblown, blindingly bright day at 8:00am. It is only just the start of the sun peeking through. And for us, it was not until around 09:30am when we finally had a decent amount of light to admire nature’s own artist.

our first peek of the sun at 09:00am

According to our proposed itinerary, about 50 minutes into our trip, we will drop by at Cromwell and eat breakfast there. Cromwell, is a little town at Otago known for its vineyards and stone-fruit orchards. However, as it was still too dark to even look at anything and all the stalls were still unsurprisingly close on this 0°C morning, we decided to just continue on our roadtrip. We then took a scenic, yet foggy (boohoo!) route along Lake Dunstan. Though it was nail-bitingly cold and still at the break of dawn, one can never deny the beauty of NZ’s roadside.

Icy Lake Dunstan at dawn. Our iPhone photos does not give it justice!

As the sun begun to rise, the beauty of New Zealand's country was starting to greet as merrily. One highlight of our early morning roadtrip were the pile of stones we saw stretched out just at the side of the road along Lindis Pass. We were hoping for some sort of divine, spiritual meaning behind these beautiful, almost sculptural, rock piles. However, one of the locals told us that stone piles has no significant meaning and was just probably started by some bored hitchikers. Nonetheless, can't help but aimlessly imagine a backpacker stacking stones for goodluck whilst wishing that his next car hitch will be with a stranger that can help him get to that place his been dreaming about.

"I was here."

Soon after, we had cuppa at Merino Country Cafe. A small café and gift shop at the small town of Omarama, famous for producing Merino Wool. Coffee costs us NZ$4.50 (roughly U$3.10) for a small cup of coffee. Quite pricey if you ask me, and premium quality coffee beans are clearly not what they are known for, to say the least. Frankly, we didn’t mind the price, but the register charged us 6 coffees when there were just 5 of us. We were already on the road when we realised about it. It was too late to go back and ask for refund. So yeah, ask for receipts. And check it! Because if you are like us, where every $$ counts, that $4.50 could have been your afternoon coffee.  Instead, you will now have to skip it to compensate for your lose. 

Enroute to Mt Aoraki you will pass through Lake Pukaki, the largest of NZ’s alpine lakes. And with its shimmering blue water, this certainly made NZ's lakeside postcard-worthy in every shot!

Lake Pukaki and the "coastal" road. Again just an iPhone shot, that does not give it justice!

The glimpse of the snowcapped Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest peak

Reaching Mt Cook Village, we decided to dropby at their i-Site Visitor Centre. Which we strongly suggest to everyone. Not only to get souvenirs and maps, but more importantly, to see the trail conditions for the day around Mt Cook Area. The village is located at the base of highest sky-scraping peaks of New Zealand, Aoraki/Mount Cook. (Check out one of the trails we hiked around Mt Cook Village on this post.)

artwork suspended amongst the ceiling beams at iSite

This proposed 3-hour drive took us about 4.5hours (one way) because we had to do a few stops for petrol and food. There are a lot of must-go sites and towns along this roadtrip. However, since we are doing this return, we opted not to go on all of it. I suggest that if you guys are planning to do this same trip, cut your whole itinerary to at least 2 days. Likewise, a roadtrip from Christchurch to Queenstown (or vice versa) split into 2-3 days will also be a good way to enjoy NZ's country drive. Or perhaps, do it around summer time. When days are longer and you can really stretch the time and squish it all in in a day. Otherwise you will be like us, arriving back at Queenstown at Day 2 and we still haven't seen this stunning place at daylight!