Day 353: Mount Cook Hike

Hike day! We drove 50 minutes up to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.

Eyes were bigger than our leg strength as we attempted to tackle the Muller Hut track which was 6 miles total with 3500+ elevation gain. The trail is purely up and down so it would be lots of stairs. We start going and….its not going well. These were big stairs so we were practically lunging up a mountain. The elevation gain was also impacting oxygen flow and Kieran was not feeling good. We made it 1.25 miles up before calling it quits and electing to do a different hike. So in total achieved 2.5 of the 6 mile hike 😂

Across from the Muller Hut hike is the Hooker Valley hike which is also 6 miles but moderate. Gobbled down our sandwiches and hiked up through Hoover Valley to the glacier lake at the bottom. The path crossed 3 bridges and followed the river from above its cliffs. Once at the lake, we could see mini ice burgs floating from the glacier. Mount Cook’s highest peak stood tall across the lake and made for a great picture. It was our first truly sunny day and 80 degrees out so we burned despite all the sunscreen.

Following the hike, we drove up to a little town called Methven and stayed at a pub / hotel / coffee shop. Got some fish and chips and called it quits.

Hotel: The Brown Pub

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