NZ: Twizel to Mount Cook

January 4 and 5, 2012

While we weren't in a hurry to be anywhere, we wanted to get out of the horrible campground as soon as possible, so we had a quick breakfast and left.  On the way out of town we drove by our last Lord of the Rings site: Pellinor/Rohan Fields.  It wasn't anything special, but Ryan explained that they needed to find a huge area to film the thousands of extras for a battle scene, so that made it much more impressive to imagine.

During our one hour drive to Mt. Cook Village the view got progressively nicer.  Mount Cook is New Zealand's tallest mountain, but it is far more accessible than Mount Logan (Canada's tallest mountain).  To see it you can simply drive to the village, and there it is - no need for helicopter rides or massive hikes. 

Our original plan was to spend the day relaxing in Mt. Cook Village (just a few hotels and a campsite) and maybe do some short walks, and then start our 2 day hike the next day.  When we went to get information from the visitor centre, though, that all changed.  They informed us that the hike to the Mueller Hut was actually an 8 hour round trip hike - not the 8 hour one way hike we were expecting.  They also warned us of bad weather coming in, and strongly suggested we leave that afternoon instead of the next day.  We quickly bought a wool hat and some rain pants, and rushed to the car to organize ourselves.  By 1pm we had made some lunch, packed our bags, and were ready to start our hike.

No, we did not plan to have matching shirts.

The hike was only a few kilometres in distance but one kilometre vertical, which is quite deceptive.  The hike didn't look so bad from the bottom, but there were a few false summits which were frustrating.

Because we were planning to stay overnight in the hut, we were carrying sleeping bags and food, but no tent or mats.  We also had a bazillion litres of water because Ryan is ultra paranoid of running out.  For me the hike up the mountain was very difficult, and I definitely held Ryan back (and kept making him drink some of my water to lighten the load).  Many people were doing it as a day hike and didn't have gear, so they of course passed us on the way up as well as on the way down.  I'll save you the groaning and just show you some pictures so you can understand just how fantastic this hike was.

That's Mount Cook on the left, with the clouds at the top.  It is rare to see the top, and we had almost a full day with a perfect view.

This was only just over half way, with a deceptively long way to go.

We eventually reached the last ridge and then had a spectacular view on the other side of glaciers and the hut.

Our first view of that hut - finally!

From the hut we could see a bunch of little avalanches on the neighbouring mountain, so I tried to catch a video of one with limited success.

One thing that was quite curious were the parrots living at the top of the mountain.  They're called kea birds and supposedly they're quite destructive, but it was super  weird to see parrots living in such a barren environment.

As spectacular as the views were, we were more than relieved to reach the hut around 5:30pm.  We had to be there by 7 for the call-in, and Ryan was getting anxious about the weather.  We had never done an overnight hike before, so we had no idea what to expect of the hut.  Turns out, it was awesome!  Sleeping mats were provided on the bunks, and the beds were next to a window with a beautiful view.  The hut got progressively fuller throughout the evening because heavy winds were driving the campers indoors to sleep, so we were lucky we got there early to claim a bed.  Upon arriving we had a quick dinner of instant soup and rice, and we were fast asleep by 8pm. 

I slept restlessly that night because I wanted to make sure to get up and see the sunrise.  At 6:15am I finally got up, but it was very overcast and there was no notable sunrise.  I promptly went back to sleep until 8:15, and by that time most people had already left the hut.  After a leisurely morning we made the 1.5 hour round trip to the actual summit of the mountain.  The climb was technically difficult, and really not worth the trip.

We started the descent at 10:20am, eager and  enjoying being cold again walking through snow (this was our Christmas holiday after all). 

Things took a turn for the worse once we got off of the flat area and we realized just how high up we were.  Ryan probably would have been fine if I hadn't been so slow, but we were both shocked at how hard the descent actually was.   My legs turned to jelly early on and I knew I was in for a painful walk down.  A storm quickly rolled over the neighbouring mountain ranges, so the views weren't as good as the day before.  The whole way down we were worried about the storm coming in, and what we would do if I actually couldn't make it down any further.  It got embarrassing when an old couple passed us on a day hike up, but it didn't make it any easier.  Anyways, for the last 45 minutes  Ryan carried my bag and we managed to reach the bottom by 2:30pm.

We were proud that we made it and wouldn't take back the experience, but we definitely needed a comfortable bed and a hot shower at the end of it.  We discovered that the campsite we had planned on staying at the night before had not fared well during the heavy winds, and a picnic table had blown across the field.  Without even looking around we checked into a nice room at the Hermitage Hotel with a spectacular view.  We ate a well-deserved pizza downstairs, then showered, napped, watched a few movies, and played a few board games.  We were quite stiff and sore, but still managed to stay up until 10pm!

(wine: Earth's End, Central Otago, Riesling, 2008)