My plan today was to visit Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, home to Aoraki (English: Mount Cook), the tallest peak in New Zealand. I woke up early, around 6am, and left just after dawn. It was about an hour drive, mostly along the shore of beautiful Lake Pukaki, before reaching Mount Cook Village inside the park.

I planned to first hike the Hooker Valley Track, which is 10km round trip and relatively flat, around a small glacial lake called Mueller Lake before reaching the edge of Hooker Lake, another glacier lake, with the Hooker Glacier and Aoraki located on the opposite end of the end of the trail. Along the way there are three swinging suspension bridges to cross, which are pretty fun. The hike only has about 80m elevation change, which is not much, making it pretty laid back.

It took only about an hour to reach the end of the track, where I was greeted to beautiful views of Hooker Lake with a few icebergs floating inside. At the end of the lake you could see the dirt-covered glacier, but the clouds were still covering the top half of Aoraki. I sat around and rested while waiting for the clouds to move, hoping I'd be able to see the top of Aoraki. While waiting, a few Kea (indigenous parrots that live in the alpine regions) called out to each other overhead, before eventually landing close by. It was clear they wanted some food, despite signs all over the place telling us not to feed them.

After waiting about half an hour, I saw what I thought was the peak of Aoraki, and it looked like the clouds would continue to be thick, so I turned around and headed back. After making it about halfway back to trailhead I turned around and realized that what I had seen before was not actually the peak, which was very disappointing.

I headed back to my car and drove around some nearby mountains to a second trail that would take me to a viewpoint above Tasman Lake, formed by the Tasman Glacier which comes down a different side of Aoraki. This hike could not have been any more different from Hooker Valley. It is only 600 meters, and it basically goes straight up. It was difficult, but the view at the top was rewarding, although not as rewarding as the Hooker Valley Track view.

After the two hikes, I headed briefly to the park's visitors centre to check it out. The centre is designed such that it faces directly towards Aoraki, and there is a window that frames the view perfectly.

Along the way back I stopped to admire some bright purple lavender fields at a farm. The lavender was in full bloom, and is scheduled to be harvested in a couple of weeks. Perhaps if I was with my family or Christine we would've paid the NZ$5 to go in and take photos in the beautiful fields. I instead just admired them from outside and ate some lavender and honey flavored ice cream, which hit the spot after a morning of hiking.

I drove about two more hours through the mountains to Queenstown, which is known as the adventure capital of New Zealand. Queenstown is located on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, and is a cute little town that reminds me a lot of Traverse City (they are about the same size, and both located on lakes). I checked into Tahuna Pod Hostel where I'd be staying the night.

After unwinding a bit, I went to grab some food. I had read that the southern regions of the South Island are particularly known for having good lamb, so I went to Pedro's House of Lamb to get a lamb roast. Pedro's only sells a 1-1.2kg lamb roast meant for 2-3 people for NZ$65 for takeaway, so I bought one with the plan to save leftovers for meals for the following day. I ate some of the lamb while it was still hot, then packaged up the rest. The lamb was perfectly cooked, very tender and flavorful.

There was still a couple more hours of sunlight, so I took an opportunity to walk around the town. There are a couple of streets with shops right adjacent to the wharf, and opposite the wharf is a cute little garden that I walked around in for a bit. Altogether there is not much to see, but it is pleasant.