Guide to Mt Cook

Mt Cook is the biggest shoulda, woulda, coulda of our trip to New Zealand and the reason in retrospect we would have rather opted for a car and stayed in hotels along the way rather than in the campervan.  If we hadn’t spent several hours grocery shopping our first day in Christchurch and organizing the contents of the campervan, we would have come straight to Mt Cook and checked into a hotel room to enjoy 48 hours of the beauty that is Mt Cook.  While the campervan was very comfortable our first night in Tekapo, when we checked the forecast for Mt Cook and realized temperatures would drop to the low forties, staying the night sans electric heater (there aren’t any powered holiday parks near Mt Cook) didn’t sound ideal to either of us.  The final nail in the coffin, was when the Hooker Valley Trek was closed due to flood damage. As a result, we weren’t able to go on that hike, which would have taken the majority of the day (5-6 hours), so we doubled up on the shorter Kea Point hike and rounded out our day with the Tasman Glacier Lookout hike.

WHERE TO STAY

$ - White Horse Campground – Unpowered Sites (13 NZD per person)

$$ - Mt Cook Lodge – Lodge Room (157 NZD)

$$$ - Hermitage Hotel – Standard Mt Cook View (198 NZD)

WHERE TO EAT

Old Mountaineers Cafe - Pub Fare (40 NZD per person)

The Sir Edmund Hillary Café & Bar - Cafeteria Sandwiches and Wraps (20 NZD per person)

The Panorama Room - Steakhouse (60 NZD per person)

WHAT TO DO

Hooker Valley Track Hike – Take in all the sights - glaciers, lakes and views of the Southern Alps on this 10 km hike

Tasman Glacier Lookout Hike – A quick 2.6 km hike to take in one of a kind sight - complete with the most unique grey water and floating glacier icebergs.

Helicopter Flight – Take in the views from a helicopter and land on a glacier!