Hiking, hiking, hiking

After a good night sleep we awoke and enjoyed a leisurely morning at the cottage. We decided to stay a second night and prepared for our day of hiking in the Mount Cook National Park. The drive up was beautiful with the mountains getting closer as we drove. 

We checked out the visitor center then decided on the Hooker Valley Track as our big hike of the day. The trail went gradually upward crossing back and forth over cool bridges across a river. 

The scenery was spectacular with great views of the snow covered mountains. 

We finally arrived at the Hooker glacier lake with chunks of glacial ice floating around. We sat and had lunch. 

After making our way back to the car we took a second hike up the side of a mountain through an old Beach tree forest with views out over the plains. 





Then deciding that two hikes wasn’t enough we took one last  hike to an overlook of the Tasaman glacier and another iceberg lake. 



All in all a 12 mile hike day. We returned to the cottage for lamb sausages on the BBQ before heading to bed exhausted from a great day.