12 Feb - Queenstown to Aoraki

Our last full day of adventure in the RV was a trip to Mt. Cook or Aoraki in Maori. Mt. Cook is located in the Southern Alps and is the highest mountain in New Zealand at 12,316 ft. We chose the scenic route out of Queenstown through the town of Wanaka, past a couple of mountain lakes and into Mt. Cook Village which is the small settlement and the gateway to Mt. Cook National Park. We stayed at Glenntanner Park Centre about 15 minutes south.

Leaving town on the scenic route with Queenstown in the distance

A quick stop in the up and coming little town of Wanaka on Lake Wanaka. Beautiful and empty.

Heading up the only route into Mt. Cook Village alongside Lake Pukaki

Almost at the head of Lake Pukaki is Glenntanner Park Centre which is an adventure gateway and our RV site. We checked in for a 4WD tour of one of the glaciers, but found out they had booked us for the wrong day and didn't have any spots available. This was really the only thing that hadn't gone completely smooth and so armed with good advice on what to do we headed off to Mt. Cook Village excited about seeing some pretty neat scenery.

Most guidebooks will mention how difficult it is to actually see all of Mt. Cook due to weather and today was no exception. This was the road up to Mt. Cook Village and that, presumably, is the approaches to Aoraki.

Kim really wanted to see a glacier and we were recommended a nice easy hike to the Kea Point Lookout where you could view the Mueller Glacier.

Not far around the bend we entered a small canyon and the wind picked up significantly. We were hit by a gust I would estimate at about 60-70 mph. It physically moved Kim down the trail. It also hit Andy, Kim and I (I put Zach behind me) with a face full of small rocks and pebbles from the trail. Naturally, Andy was quite upset and very unwilling to proceed. Bravely, I asked Kim to go ahead (hey, she wanted to see the glacier) while we stayed hunkered down in a little hide we dove into when we got hit.

Kim fearlessly pressed on and came back with this picture. The glacier is the giant gray wall.


We enjoyed our little rest and Andy's mood came around

So back down the trail. The blue buildings at the base of the mountain are the Hermitage Hotel at Mt. Cook Village

Family shot with glaciers on the mountain behind

Check out Zach

Coming off the trail we drove up into the village for a snack and to see the national park visitor center. While lounging outside Zach decided to take up photography.

While he cut rip off 50 pictures of his hand, the grass or some rock he could also occasionally frame a pretty nice shot and we had a blast watching him use a camera as big as his head

The visitor center was great and had a lot of information on Mt. Cook and the Southern Alps. Mt. Cook is where Sir Edmund Hillary did a lot of his training climbs for Mt. Everest.

The visitor center architecture framed the view of Mt. Cook which was still unfortunately behind the clouds

Trying for another shot of the New Zealand flag with the kids, this time the flag played and the kids wouldn't

One last shot before heading back down to Glenntanner Park

Once back at the RV park we followed the boys as they went off to chase rabbits and stumbled across these trampolines. No trampoline has a better view.

Kim started on dinner and I took the boys on a long walk down to the lake. Pictures here and below.