Week 508 · Hooker Glacier Lake · Dark Sky Reserve · Lake Pukaki
Aoraki /
Continuing our drive to Mt. Cook (Aoraki — the historical indigenous name), we passed Lake Pukaki which had an incredible blue colour from the glacier tailings, and got our initial views of Mt. Cook. Bright blue sky all day and actually concerned about sunburn.
Mt. Cook is about 13,000 feet and the relief is over 10,000 feet from the lake below. We started late in the afternoon and took a three-hour hike from the parking lot to Hooker Glacier Lake — one of the best hikes that I have ever taken. We were hustling back because the temps were dropping quickly once the sun went behind the mountain.
Mt. Cook is about 13,000 feet and the relief is over 10,000 feet from the lake below. Three-hour return hike. Several suspension bridges. One of the best hikes I have ever taken — and we were hustling back because the temps were dropping quickly once the sun went behind the mountain. Looks like the model for the Paramount Pictures intro — a quick Google search disproved that theory.
"One of the best hikes I have ever taken — and we were hustling back because the temps were dropping quickly once the sun went behind the mountain."
We had a quick bite at the national park village and then headed toward our next town. The area is so remote and uninhabited that it is designated a "Dark Sky" zone by UNESCO — supposedly on a clear night you can see the Milky Way. Driving back by Lake Pukaki, there was nothing around this lake — no town, houses, anything. We were lucky to have a clear night — but had a full moon which generated too much light pollution to see stars or the southern lights.
The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, designated in 2012, is one of the largest dark sky reserves in the world, covering 4,300 square kilometres of the Mackenzie Basin and southern Southern Alps. The area's low population, dry climate, and distance from large cities creates some of the darkest skies in the Southern Hemisphere. It is one of only a handful of Gold Tier reserves globally — the highest designation from the International Dark-Sky Association. On a moonless night without cloud cover, observers can see the Milky Way core, the Magellanic Clouds (two small galaxies visible only from the Southern Hemisphere), and the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis). The full moon that foiled the stargazing on this visit generates roughly as much light pollution at ground level as a small town.
About an hour drive to Lake Tekapo, which wasn't huge but did have accommodations. We pulled in late and the whole village was designed around dark sky tourism — so it was very dark with no street lights.