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HOOKER VALLEY TRACK Words and photo by Joan Kenny

AORAKI/MOUNT COOK, NEW ZEALAND

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Setting off towards the Hooker Valley with Mt Cook in the distance

This was my first trip to New Zealand, in the company of three walking friends, Shirley and Peter Wilson and Jill Thompson. The idea arose on a walk with the Catholic Walking Club last year, when I discovered that the Wilsons were considering walking the Queen Charlotte Track, which is a walk I was very keen to do. So we discussed the possibility of doing it together, and as the plans took shape I asked Jill from the Melbourne University Alumni Bushwalking Group if she would like to join us.

The Wilsons warmed up on the challenging Tongariro Crossing in the North Island, then joined Jill and me in Christchurch for fifteen days walking in the South Island. Our program consisted of two full days at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, a half day walk at Nelson Lakes National Park, two full days in the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park and the five day Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds area. It was all magnificent walking.

On our first day at Mt Cook we set off on what a journalist writing in Royalauto last year called ‘the best half-day walk in the world’. This is the Hooker Valley Track, said to be a three hour return walk, but as we set out from our motel unit at the Hermitage about 2 km from the start of the track, and stopped along the way for photos and to let other walkers pass, we probably made it a six hour walk.

The track skirts a huge glacial moraine wall, then passes an alpine memorial to guides killed by an avalanche last century, before skirting Mueller Lake at the snout of the Mueller Glacier; here we saw our first grey icebergs. Soon we reached and crossed the first of two mighty suspension bridges slung across the milky, gushing Hooker River. The track continues along the side of Mueller Lake, sidling around a steep rocky wall where wire mesh prevented rocks from falling unto us, while a steel handrail prevented us from falling into the river. Then over a second bridge across the deepening valley and the boulder-strewn roaring river. On up the valley until around a bend the pyramid-shape of Mt Cook came into full view. This beautiful section of the track winds on boardwalks across alpine grasses and flowers.

Eventually the track reaches the source of the river, Hooker Lake, which is at the foot of the Hooker Glacier, inching down from Mt Cook. We lunched here, perched on rocks on the shingly beach, and photographed the icebergs in the lake: some dirty grey, others sparkling white and blue. What a lunch spot! Our return trip followed the same route, with the added trill of a roaring cross-wind as we crossed the second swingbridge. We flopped in the alpine grass for a snooze before crossing the other suspension bridge and, having revived, we trudged back ‘home’, admiring interesting cloud formations.

I have never attempted such a dramatic and awesome walk. I appreciated the assistance of my two walking poles on the rocky terrain, although the Hooker Valley Track is not a difficult walk. This was the first of a series of really great walks, in a beautiful island. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to walk amongst the alps, lakes, forest and coasts of NZ in such good company and walking conditions.

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