We left Christchurch bound for the mighty Mt. Cook. On the way we stopped at the stunning Lake Tekapo. I’m sure the rest of the scenery on the 3 hour drive there was very impressive too but since Jill was driving I seized the opportunity and took a well-earned nap. I felt pretty fresh at the lake, it truly was impressive. Beautiful wild purple flowers grow on the rocks surrounding the lake, a massive body of amazingly blue, still water. The water is mesmerising but as you look at it, it leads the eye to a stunning range of snowcapped mountains off in the distance. This region has mountains in seemingly every direction. Any one of these elements would make it a special place but taken as a whole, Lake Tekapo is just amazing.

It was another hour or so of driving before we got to Mt. Cook. It was pretty wet and miserable when we did. It was also unfortunate that on the next day (during which we had planned to do a few hikes), the weather would be even worse. Great.

The guide book we’ve been using refers to the Hooker Valley Track through the Mt. Cook (Aoraki) region as indisputably the South Island’s most scenic walk. Indisputably! This, the book states, is dependant on it being a clear day. Unfortunately, the weather couldn’t have been further from clear for the entire time we were there. For the most part it didn’t matter though. Even with the grey overcast start to the day, the view from even the car park was dazzling and from there things just got so much better. We saw huge glaciers inching down jagged ridges, waterfalls spewing from blue-tinged hanging glaciers, moraine-dammed glacial lakes with floating icebergs, raging rivers, wispy waterfalls… all capped by Aoraki’s towering presence. It was quite the track! It would have been stunning in any weather but with the rain and later, the punishing icy blasts, it was a full body experience. The rain water permeated every part of my being and pseudo arctic blasts from the iceberg filled lake made my body work hard to stay warm. The lake was at the end of the hike though. During the first half, when I was still laughing at the weak showing the rain was making, we crossed a large swing bridge and shortly after, crossed another one. The scenery across both was to die for. We turned a corner and Aoraki literally pierced the clouds in the valley ahead. The view just got better and better after that, inunumerable waterfalls tumbled, the river roared and the sight of the mighty Aoraki required new words to be added to the dictionary. At 3,754m, Aoraki reigned above all. It was a constant presence for the second half of the hike, whether we were rock hopping or walking with planked tussock boardwalks underfoot, it was always there with us.

A couple of hours into the hike, the rain had seriously stepped up its game and the onslaught from the wind had become ruthless. Together they had turned this hike into a gruelling slog. Reaching the glacial lake at the end was a real achievement. An achievement I didn’t even realise I’d made. The weather was really beating me down so I stopped to compose myself, thinking I still had at least another hour to go. It wasn’t until Jill told me we were at the end of the trail that I looked up and saw the lake.

Jill wasn’t feeling great for much of the hike so decided to stay put but seeing that lake gave me a second wind. I went exploring around the lake, though it wasn’t as straight forward as that sounds. Calling the conditions that day wintery is a major understatement. The heavy rain and strong winds were bad enough, especially by that point when our clothes and footwear had completely soaked through; the water was sloshing around in my boots like it does in a wetsuit. But standing next to that glacier filled lake, my face was under an endless barrage from what felt like tiny, freezing shards of ice. The wind was considerably stronger by the lake shore too, those ice shards were striking me with some speed behind them. There were two fast flowing rivers coming down from the mountains. They were moving quick but shallow enough, with enough rocks near the surface for me to rock hop over them. This weather had done a good job of thinning out the herd already but by crossing those two rivers I’d left everyone behind. I stopped to take it all in. The wind was slightly more forgiving now and the ice shards had slowed. I took a good, long look at my surroundings. The droplets of rain were seemingly suspended in the air by the constantly shifting wind direction; it was like looking at dancing curtains of water. The scale of this place was staggering, where else in the world can you find calving glaciers, cloud-piercing peaks and thousand-foot waterfalls all in a single glance? Pure New Zealand!