Journey through the Valley: Our Day Hike to Hooker Lake and Hooker Hut

In early May 2024, Elle and I headed up to Mount Cook from Queenstown with our friends, Jess, Andy and Cathy. The main purpose of the trip was to finally complete the Mueller Hut Hike and the whole week prior we thought it would be cancelled due to bad weather and avalanche risk. But, with some planning and good luck, we seized a weather window and hightailed it (within the speed limit!) up the 300km to Mount Cook.

Sharing the drive. We hit the road at 6am and made it to Mount Cook just after 9am

We successfully completed the Mueller Hut trail in a day - which you can read about here - and I can honestly say was one of the best hiking days I’ve ever had. Feeling accomplished and energised, this gave us another day to play with in the Mount Cook area before we had to head back to Queenstown and our day jobs (even living in paradise a girl’s gotta work). Ever since I injured my shoulder bouldering, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to keep my body moving. One thing I’ve been trying out lately is trail running (my friend told me it’s like running but you can stop whenever you want and I was sold…) so when my friend Cathy suggested that we run the Hooker Valley Track in the morning, I was instantly keen.

Mueller Hut the day before we hiked the Hooker Valley Track

The Hooker Valley Track is an extremely popular trail in Mount Cook, if not the most popular. It takes a slow meandering path through the valley floor, crossing three pretty impressive swing bridges, before arriving at Hooker Lake; a glacial lake in the valley floor with views to Mt Cook, Mt Sefton and Mt Ollivier all around you. You can even catch a glimpse of Sefton Bivvy, one of the DOC huts in the area, from the track.

You will have to start the trail early to get an empty bridge picture like this - we were lucky!

The track is 5km long, making it the perfect recovery run for us after a day of hiking. We had planned to start super early to beat the morning rush, but alas, sleep prevailed after our long hike the day before so we got to the trailhead at a respectable 9am. Even by this point, the trail already had a lot of people out and about already so we did have to navigate passing people throughout (although the added bonus of lots of encouraging claps and cheers from other trail users while we ran past was really nice!). It was just Cathy and I who decided on the trail run while Elle, Jess and Andy walked behind us and we made a plan to all meet at Hooker Lake.

Elle, Andy and Jess opted to walk the trail and take in the views at a slower pace, whilst Sarah and Cathy ran ahead.

Obviously, the runners arrived a little bit ahead of the others so we took the opportunity to chill, have some snacks and admire the scenery. It’s easy to see why the trail is so popular when you reach the end. The culmination of the walk is at Hooker Lake, a stunning glacial lake in the middle of a classic U-Shaped valley, complete with still-intact floating glaciers. If you want to, you can head right down to the lakeside and touch the icy water, but be careful as any wild body of water can be dangerous no matter how calm.

Pretty nice spot to wait for our friends to join us

On our return journey, we embarked on the Hooker Valley “side quest”, which is Hooker Hut. Blink and you’ll miss it, the entrance for this trail is about 1km away from Hooker Lake, marked by a small orange triangle on a small bridge. This diverts from the well-established gravel path, and follows a more traditional trodden grassy trail around the side of the valley so requires slightly more sturdy footwear.

The path gets a little more uneven as you approach the hut

Hooker Hut is, without a doubt, one of the prettiest huts I’ve encountered in the South Island. Unfortunately, following a fire that broke out, Hooker Hut needed to be completely rebuilt in 2009 and so as far as backcountry huts go it is quite modern. You can book to stay in Hooker Hut all year round, but probably due to it’s modern cleanliness and easy accessibility, it books up well, well in advance. If you live in New Zealand (or are extremely well-prepared!) I would absolutely recommend booking Hooker Hut for an idyllic backcountry experience (without having to hike up a mountain). I would love to book the hut out and come back with a group of friends one day!

Perfect weather and perfect views for us today!

Lucky for us, we must have arrived at Hooker Hut at the perfect time between last night’s guests vacating and the new batch incoming, as it was completely empty when we arrived. This meant we were able to have a good nosy around and relax on the deck under the bright, but chilly, sun. After taking an acceptable amount of photographs we headed back on the trail, this time meeting a bunch of people heading in for their overnight stay. Like I said, good timing! Making it back to our cars, this brought our travels in Mount Cook to an end. Having had an epic adventure getting to Mueller Hut, coupled with a gorgeous day on the Hooker Valley Track, we were feeling pretty damn satisfied with our weekend and were ready to head back to Queenstown and our own beds.

A view of Mount Cook in all her glory from Hooker Hut