After our long day hike on the Routeburn which left us pretty much happy and done with hiking in New Zealand, we drove into Mt Cook Village with the intention to stroll around the valley floor and gaze up at the snow capped mountains, including Mt Cook (the highest peak in New Zealand), for a few hours.
We went to the visitor center to find out which would be a suitable hike for us. There were a couple of short, flat hikes with good photo opportunities. Stupidly enough I asked about the trail conditions up to the Mueller Hut which is a very popular hut with great views of the surrounding mountains. We had read that the trail was supposed to be pretty bad and we had no intention of doing any advanced hiking this day. However the person at the visitor center said that it is not too bad and that it would be nothing if you have a bit of experience.
Half an hour later we were on our way up to the hut. 10 km round trip and 1000 m elevation… How did this happen? We were going to take it easy. Well, turned out we had to anyway because I was not feeling very well this day and I was slower than usual. We made it to the top of the ridge and almost to the hut. But we decided to stop about 15 min before the hut and enjoy the views from there.
Andy did a great job to cool and find stubby holders for the beers that we had brought to celebrate the last hike in New Zealand. Beer has never tasted better!
The views were very much like in the European Alps and we are looking forward to seeing them again when we visit Switzerland at the end of June.
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| Mt Cook |