Mount Cook

We didn't actually spend the night in Mount Cook Village, but since we covered so much ground on our road trip from Wanaka to Fox Glacier (via Mount Cook Village), it warrants its own post. We traveled about 360 miles (probably more than that) in one day, and the funny thing is Fox Glacier is right on the other side of the mountains from Mount Cook. If we had a private helicopter, we may have just flown over. But we did not, we were relying on Jabba to get us to the other side. Even with a broken window, possibly an oil leak, and who knows what else. 

In Wanaka, we got up super early, packed up our stuff, ate breakfast in the parking lot (the kitchen wasn't open that early) and loaded up Jabba. We were officially starting our road trip. We had our essentials, including Lonely Planet New Zealand and Adele's 25 album. Since Verena was driving, I was the navigator and the DJ. After a slight detour in the beginning, we had a pretty good day of traveling through the beautiful New Zealand countryside. 

Road trip essentials.

A little ways outside of Wanaka, we made our way through Lindis Pass and made our first stop. We couldn't get over the views and had to stop and take some pictures and use Verena's GoPro. We carried on to Mount Cook.

Lindis Pass

Our next stop was to pick up 2 hitchhikers. That is the other thing you do when road tripping in New Zealand. I thought about hitchhiking if I needed to. Even though I was a solo female. Anyway, we picked up these 2 girls who were actually trying to get to Christchurch since their camper van broke down. Which wasn't a good story at all, but we did end up stopping at Lake Pukaki, and they got to see a view of Mount Cook they hadn't seen yet. I don't think they were totally into it, but I hope they were able to sort everything out and continue with their travels.

Mount Cook and Lake Pukaki was so amazing. So beautiful. I know I keep saying this about everything. But I can't help it. The lake was so turquoise. And the sun was shining so we could see the snow-covered mountain in the distance. Amazing.

Lake Pukaki and Mount Cook.

We continued along Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook Village, with another stop, of course, at a viewpoint. After making our lunch, we started the Hooker Valley hike. The sun continued to shine and we joined a bunch of other people to tramp, yes tramp, to the Hooker Glacier. The Kiwis call hiking or trekking, tramping. And now I'm done using it. I'll continue to use hike. So we started the hike, and made our way across our first swing bridge.

Swing bridge with a view.

And our view was this.

Mueller Lake in the distance.

The water color and river was just as unreal as the turquoise color of Lake Pukaki. The scenery was just so stunning. I really need to use some other adjectives, but oh well. Verena and I kept up the hike for little over an hour, went over 2 more swing bridges and made it to Hooker Lake. I was expecting a glacier, and it was there, but not much of it. But I did see some ice in the lake.

Hooker Lake.

We ate our lunch, took some photos, and started the return trip back. I couldn't stop taking photos. Just so beautiful. On the trip back, I saw a 2008 NYC Marathon shirt. The man wearing it didn't really want to chat, but his wife responded enthusiastically. I'm halfway around the world and I see a shirt for a race I ran. Yes, it's the NYC Marathon and over 45,000 runners participated from all over the world. But it was still cool.

Hooker Valley.

We made good time getting back, even with a quick photoshoot on one of the swing bridges. 

Mountains!

After our hike, we got on the road back towards Wanaka, but before we left the Mount Cook area, we had to stop once more on Lake Pukaki. The sun had moved, and the lake was just that much brighter. So amazing. It totally looks fake. 

The turquoise water.

We went back the same way we had come earlier that morning and a couple of hours later, we were back in Wanaka. But no stopping. We followed Lake Wanaka a bit, to get to the West Coast. We saw waterfalls, wound through curvy roads, and passed a few wineries. However, we were on a mission to get to Fox Glacier by 9pm. We also saw a rainbow, which was exciting, but the picture could never do it justice. 

Spotted a rainbow.

It was a successful 1st leg of our road trip. We saw some amazing sights and had great weather. We probably listened to Adele's album about 8 times, which may not be generous enough, due to lack of radio and her album being amazing. And we made it to the West Coast to begin our trip north.