New Zealand Adventure – Part 4 – Lawrence Pallant Photography

This is the final post for our New Zealand Adventure. Before returning to Christchurch, where our trip ended, we stopped for two nights in Twizel which gave us access to Mount Cook National Park. We were lucky that the rainy days mostly occurred while we traveled from one place to another. The photo below was taken on such a day.

Twizel is near the end of Lake Pukaki. At this end there was a drain in the lake that allowed water to flow into the river below the dam.

Aoraki/Mount Cook is highest mountain in New Zealand at 12,218 feet. As we drove, towards Mount Cook there was a cloud over Lake Pukaki with the glaciated mountains rising in the distance. Very scenic!

We completed two hikes around Mount Cook. First we did the Hooker Valley Track, about 6 miles with little elevation gain. We crossed a few swinging bridges to end at Hooker Lake. It was an incredibly windy day with stormy weather over the mountain. After the Hooker Valley hike, we did a short walk to view the Tasman Glacier.