Hooker Lake is the one of the best views in all of New Zealand and is a must see, if you can swing it on the south island. The Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is 3 hours from Queenstown and 4 hours from Christchurch. Here is what we saw.
The Hooker Valley Track is 10 kilometers or 6 miles and takes about 3 hours round trip, not counting time at the lake and photographing along the way. Mary and I got an early start and made good time on the relatively flat hike.
When we got to the lake it was as spectacular as we had imagined, with one big problem, the wind was blowing and there was really no reflection in the lake. As we were staying close by for three days, I figured we would have to hike back in again on another day.
I noticed some Cirrus clouds to the east and figured they would float over Mount Cook in ten minutes or so. We had a moment when we were both done shooting and I asked Mary to “just wait.” She reluctantly agreed and started focusing on the icebergs.
Sure enough the wind settled and the Cirrus clouds passed right over Mount Cook.
Mary was very happy we “got the shot”, but also glad we would not have to hike out to Hooker Lake again, the next day.
After working so hard to get to a destination, sometimes the conditions are just not right. Sometimes if you just wait, things will change. This time we were fortunate enough that it changed for the better.
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