White Horse Hill

We began today with a quick stop at the Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Shop to pick up smoked salmon from the local salmon farms and for Keanan's first drip coffee in weeks! There was also a small visitors center here with views over the lake to Mt Cook, which was still covered in clouds at this time of the morning. We then started our drive along Lake Pukaki, with the views of Aoraki/Mt Cook getting better and better the closer we got.

Our first stop once we arrived was the national park visitor's center - a beautiful combination of Maori art and symbolism and information on the history of the mountain, its climbers and mountaineering as a whole in NZ. We then checked in with the ranger, got directions to our hut for the night and enjoyed our smoked salmon lunch before heading back to our van to pack our bags for the night!

The route to our hut largely followed the very popular Hooker Valley Track. From the first of three swing bridges along the way, we enjoyed the views over Mueller Lake to Mueller Glacier. After crossing the Hooker River on the second swing bridge, the track goes between old moraine ridges and humps and the vegetation changes to more open tussock and a wider valley floor.

This section is where we broke off from the well traveled trail to head to our hut! We followed a very narrow trail through the tall grasses (yay for no ticks here!) until we reached a stream. We were surprised we couldn't see the hut yet, but we eventually spotted a marker and continued on our way. After some more wading through tall grasses, the hut came into view. Here's some but history from the DOC:

"The hut has a long and interesting history.

The hut first opened in late 1910, located on the moraine wall beside Hooker Glacier and at the foot of Copland Pass. It was built as a base for mountaineers crossing the pass from east to west or scaling the peaks in the surrounding area. The hut’s original construction was planned by Peter Graham, the chief guide at the Hermitage at the time, and was built with help from guides Jim Murphy and Darby Thomson. The build was challenging given the location and the technology of the time; a new track had to be built by hand so materials could be brought in by pack horses.

By 1948, the hut was in a dilapidated condition as the severe alpine weather and a lack of maintenance had taken its toll. The moraine wall below the hut also showed visible cracking as the Hooker Glacier receded, so the hut was moved uphill and rebuilt – though this time supplies were flown in by plane and parachuted onto the site.

The hut was again moved uphill in 1961 and 1994, due to further cracking in the moraine wall. Soon after the move in 1994, heavy rain washed out access to the site, which meant very few people were accessing the hut by foot. Then in 2004, an avalanche struck the hut, causing some damage.

The hut was dismantled and flown out of the valley in sections in 2015, then stored in Twizel while plans for the restoration were developed. It was flown into its new site in stages and reassembled from 2020, though the Covid-19 lockdown and then winter delayed the work.

The building is timber framed, with corrugated iron clad walls and roof. The floor is tongue and groove. It is the "home" of a famous alpine ghost, as recounted by Peter Graham (in Peter Graham: Mountain Guide) and others."

We briefly met a couple of our bunkmates for the night before dropping our bags and heading down to the stream to cool off. "Cool off" was definitely an understatement as the glacial waters in the stream were almost instantly numbing! After sufficiently numbing our feet/legs, we made our way back up to the hut. Here we were invited to join in celebrating one of our bunkmate's 14th birthday with a brownie cake her parents had baked in their backcountry oven earlier! We enjoyed some of the cake as well as our own dinner before setting back out to reach the end of the Hooker Valley Track with hopefully fewer other people.

We met another of our bunkmates on our way back out to the track. The third swing bridge then led us to the East Hooker and the source of the Hooker River. The track ended with an amazing view over the iceberg-speckled Hooker Lake and up to majestic Aoraki/Mount Cook and the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana.

Back at the hut we talked to our bunkmates. The family was from Sydney and had been to NZ several times before. Lizzy is an ecologist and Douglas, an astronomer, a perfect combination for all of our nature questions! Their daughter, Sofia, is alert, listening for avalanches above us on Mount Sefton so we can watch them cascade and crash into the Mueller Glacier below. Jimmy, our bunkmate from NYC/Texas is only a few days into his trip and is eager to learn everyone's suggestions.

Together, we watch the sunset (9:21pm) and the stars start to appear as it gets darker. It's a clear night, so we can see everything! Douglas shows us the Southern Cross, and how to use it to navigate, as well as pointing out Jupiter and Mars and the Magellanic Cloud galaxies. We stay up pretty late, laying on the deck of the hut, ogling at the Milky Way and all the stars visible at this remote location.

In the morning, we watch the sun as it begins to light the mountains around us before packing up or stuff for our return journey. Back on the track, we enjoyed more views down the valley and across to the Sealy Range. We then repeated our beautiful drive along Lake Pukaki as we left the park, and enjoyed more views back at Mt Cook as we headed to Lake Tekapo!Read more