Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook MustDos in 1 day
 

Hello all,

We are driving from Christchurch to Queenstown this November and will have 1 day (and 1 night) to spend at Lake Tekapo. Basically we will reach Lake Tekapo around noon and will leave the next day around 5pm or so.

What are some of the must-do and must-see sights in this area ? We love scenic drives, nature, easy hiking\walking and in general just enjoying what nature has to provide.

Any recommendations, tips and advice on what to do will greatly help our travel plans. Thanks in advance !

Hi Carl

You are getting to see alot of our country aren't you.

Around Lake Tekapo there are couple of different things to see and do. Nearby are the Salmon farms. They grow salmon in pens in the hydro canals. You can go to the farms catch a fat salmon and have it prepared for you to take away. You could then cook it up that evening for dinner, or eat it raw as shashimi.

As you have noted, Aoraki Mt Cook is not too far away.

At Aoraki Mt Cook you can take scenic flights up round the mountain, you can even land on a glacier if you want. Do note however that not all the scenic flights leave from Aoraki Mt Cook airport, some leave from Twizel which is roughly at the end of the spur road that takes you up to Aoraki Mt Cook village.

At Mt Cook village there are several short walks up into nearby bush. Be prepared though, the weather is very changable here so pack a day bag accordingly. There is even a short walk to the base of a nearby glacier.

You could easily fill a day in and around this area, not least beacause everything is so spread out.

Enjoy your travels.

Steve

PS Make sure you gas up your car before you leave for Queenstown. There are only two towns of any size between Twizel and Queenstown, Omarama and Cromwell. I would not bank on the shops in Omarama being open any later than 6PM.

Thanks kiwi_acct - this is our first trip to NZ and we cant wait to get there - it all looks so beautiful and great fun !

While browsing through the internet, I came across a website that offered beginner glacier walking tours (for folks with no experience) that looked very cool - it was a half day (or a couple of hours) tour, and you wore snow shoes with spikes (dont know the technical term for it!) and it all looked very exciting. But stupid me didnt bookmark the site and now I cant find it, no matter how hard I look ! :-(

Does anyone know of any such tours ? I'm kicking myself for not bookmarking it when I found it, if anyone has a clue about this and can point me to the site\tour operator, it'll be awesome !

I did a search and pulled up a gazillion glacier walking options - not sure if you're referring specifically to Tasman glacier (Mt Cook) or glaciers on the west coast in general, but here are a few sites that might help:

http://www.west-coast.co.nz/142f.html

http://www.scenicpacific.co.nz/trip.cfm/trip-10000023

www.keatours.co.nz/glaciers.asp

www.glentanner.co.nz/mountcook.html

http://www.discoverytours.co.nz/index.cfm/mt_cook

Thanks Melnq8, but unfortunately none of these sites have the information I was looking for. I am specifically looking for a tour in the Mt Cook area - this was a short (few hours) tour for beginners, and the coolest (at least to my wife) was the fact that they gave you some cool equipment, but it was still for beginners and was an easy walk\hike.

CarlPost5 -

Sorry none of those sites panned out. You've piqued my interest, but I can't seem to find what you're looking for either. It if helps, there are five main glaciers in Mt Cook National Park - Tasman, Hooker, Mueller, Godley and Murchison.

Perhaps a search under a specific glacier name will help you find what you're looking for.

Good luck and if you find it, please post the info.

Hi There Carl

I too gave it a go to try and find details of any hikes you can do on the glaciers on the Mt Cook side, alas I could not find any info. I have though pasted in here the email
address for the Department Of Conservation visitors centre at Aoraki Mt Cook. They should be able to assist.

By the way, the visitor centre is well worth a visit in its self, full of info and good displays last time I was there.

mailto:[email protected]

I too found plenty of sites for the West Coast glaciers but none for around the Mt Cook area, unless you want to fly in and land on a glacier. There is however a relatively short walk from the village up I think it is the Hooker valley, this walk takes you to the terminal morraine (sp) of a glacier (The Hooker Glacier).

Good luck with the planning, I am sure you will enjoy your visit here.

Steve.