Mount Cook national park

Mount Cook (Aoraki) is New Zealand's highest mountain. The surrounding land is a national park with many impressive peaks and several large glaciers. The park provides easy access to walking tracks and spectacular views.

We arrived at the park headquarters at lunch time. The Department of Conservation has a beautiful campsite with snowy peaks as a back drop. Our initial plan was to have an easy afternoon with a short hike and some relaxation time around the camp ground.

As with any alpine location the weather can change fast and a new weather forecast turned our plan around. The weather was still great but during the night a storm was expected. We had to forget about our relaxing afternoon and put on our hiking boots and gear up for the hike ahead of us. If we wanted to see the glaciers and get a closer look at the surrounding nature there was no time for waiting around until the next day.

Our hike provided us with spectacular views of Mount Cook perfectly lit up by the sun with a bright blue background. It was however very windy, the predicted storm was on it's way. With 120 kilometer winds that night we almost thought that the motor home would blow away. Luckily it didn't and we could continue our journey around New Zealand.