Twizel and Mount Cook

Sat 26th January.

Sunny periods , 28 degrees..

The journey to Twizel, Gateway to Mount Cook National Park takes us through the Lindis Pass, yellow tussucked hills of modest height above the tree-line, a bit like the pennines (but with a single carriageway instead of the M62) and higher.

Their softer, rounded peaks make a nice change from the brutal, dark landscape of Fiordland. Between the valleys are the remnants of old farms, eking out a living sheep farming. The usual viewpoints provide us with photo opportunities along the way.

Before the road these were monsters to cross, just like the Pennines!

After a while it flattens down into a huge valley, in the middle of which are some odd shaped hills. The Clay Cliffs are a visitor attraction privately owned by an enterprising farmer who has laid a stone track to them and charges an entrance fee by way of an honesty box. This is the only attraction en route so we stop and have a picnic and great views over the valley.

We continue on to Twizel. Twizel was constructed in the late 1960/70’s to accommodate workers for a complex of dams, canals and hydro power stations. It’s barracks-like, single storey buildings were supposed to be temporary but when the project was finished some workers refused to leave and bought up the plots. What is odd, is it has 2 identical (ie. same company), supermarkets opposite each other, stocking (or not) the same things. Why build another identical supermarket 50 paces from the first one? We enter the larger of the two looking for some wine and something to cook. No fresh fish - only frozen, not much of anything really. Graham asks one of the shelf stackers, any fresh fish? “Only what’s in the corner” comes the reply. That’s nothing then. “Guess you’ll have to cetch it yerself” comes the laughing reply.

Waiting for the wine to cool down we take a walk by the river and meet lots of dog walkers with mad, playful dogs. Then call in for a cold beer in one of the bars. The beer was really nice and restaurants were filling up. Look past the architecture and Twizel is actually a very nice place - no wonder the workers wanted to stay. We take a snapshot with the zoom of Mount Cook whilst on the walk - this is where we’re going tomorrow - getting excited!

Sun 27th Jan

Sunny periods, 29 degrees,

It’s hot as we drive to Mount Cook National Park and it looks like we’re going to have a fine day. Apparently the National Park has over 30 mountains over 3000m! In the Lake District the highest peak is Scafell Pike 964m. Our highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis at 1344m.

Today we plan to walk the Hooker Trail to the Hooker Glacier at the foot of Mount Cook. It’s Sunday so no doubt they’ll be a lot of us up there. 

The drive is less than an hour, most of it beside the jaw dropping beautiful Lake Pukaki. We stop at almost every viewpoint to drink in the beautiful colours.

We are stunned by Lake Pukaki.

It’s fed by snow and ice from the Mt Cook range and forms the first top-up lake for the hydro station further down the line. The turquoise colour comes from microscopic amount of rock brought down by the melted ice and suspended in the water. The colour is amazing - you really can’t take your eyes off it. 

We can’t stop taking photos and we’re not there yet. Hope the car park isn’t full.

The Hooker Trail is a very accessible 10km (3hrs or so) return walk up to the Hooker Glacier at the foot of Mount Cook and back again. The views promise to be stunning. It takes in tussock (course low growing grass growing in clumps), jagged mountains, alpine tarns, fast flowing rivers and narrow suspension  bridges. The track has been made very accessible and can be hiked by normal walkers. There is a campsite next to the car park so you can get an early start and see the mountain at dawn.

Mount Cook is 3,754m (12,316ft) and was a practice ground of Sir Edmund Hilary for his Everest campaign. There has been 239 deaths recorded on the mountain over the years of climbers and assistants, the latest being 2015. A book in the visitor centre records them all and there is a monument to the lost at the start of the walk.

One last look behind at Lake Pukaki  from the other end. It looks like a beach in the pic but really there are lots of small streams snaking through dried tussock as the water loses its power on its way to the lake.

The walk curves round tussock and rocks. They’ve really made a good job with this path.

As the glaciers melt, they throw down gallons of water forming alpine lakes.. The river snakes down over which wire suspension bridges have been built giving more photo opportunities. This really is a stunning walk.

After a couple of hours, we reach the end of the walk. Unfortunately the clouds roll in and obscure the top of Mt Cook. In front is the Hooker Glacier. A block of ice no more in the summer but a lake. Some of the glacier pieces are floating in the newly formed lake. The black bits in the front that look like islands are parts of the glacier which have broken off. Mainly black but with turquoise marbling.

We eat our picnic, rest our limbs, and after a couple of spots of rain, start to make our way back. An hour and a bit later, back at the visitor centre with a beer and a cup of tea, we look back to see Mt Cook has disappeared.

The visitor centre is a great piece of design, with the entrance leading your eye through a series of semi circles to the summit of the mountain. There is a collection of historic climbing tools, poems, and a register of mountaineers who have lost their lives climbing Mt Cook. One page per person. 239 pages in all.

Back in Twizel we visit our favourite bar and reflect on a fabulous day. One of our highlights in New Zealand and all free.

Tomorrow we head to the coast to Timaru and then the next day on to Christchurch. Our brief adventure in New Zealand will soon be over.....