After a lazy, rainy day in Twizel spent on the couch, snacking, and relaxing, we packed ourselves a few snacks and ventured off to Aoraki/Mount Cook to walk the Hooker Valley Track. Aoraki is just a 65km drive from Twizel, yet I’d never been there. My bad.

The drive from Twizel to Mount Cook Village would typically be a busy one, with loads of tour buses and campervans, but with borders closed, the road was ours. It was a stunning day, picture-perfect along the shore of Lake Pukaki. Not a soul around, nor another vehicle to be seen.

Mount Cook Village was not what I imagined. There’s no main street full of shops and cafes. It’s more of a basecamp; a tiny settlement nestled at the foot of the mountains. The Hermitage Hotel is home to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre and a couple of restaurants, and aside from a few other lodges, the Department of Conservation Visitor Centre, and a small café that’s about it! The village’s charm lies in its purpose: to provide a gateway to the majestic Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The real attractions are the hikes, the views, and the mountains themselves.

We set off from the trailhead for the Hooker Valley Track, a roughly 10km round trip. Two and a half hours at a slow pace. The track is well-maintained and relatively flat, making it perfect for all fitness levels (read my fitness level). Chookie and I managed the round trip in an hour and a half, stopping for lots of pics, crossing three suspension bridges, each with a different perspective of the Hooker River and surrounding glaciers.

The track ends at Hooker Lake, where we stopped for a rest and a wee snack, and were witness to a down-on-one-knee wedding proposal of some young man to his (she said yes) future bride.

So, yes a reasonably nice walk for the physically unfit, of which I’m one. There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe this place, and I won’t even attempt to. The pictures say it all.