Hiking the Hooker Valley Trail and Kea Point at Aoraki

So, this day is the hardest to narrow down the photos because it was six hours of solid beauty, and it's hard to narrow down.

But I will try, and probably fail.

Just be prepared for a lot of photos like this.

And like this.

You get the idea.

But let's backtrack to the pedestrian hotel shot. Aoraki right outside our hotel window.

That was a nice way to wake up.

We hiked the Hooker Valley Trail, which I highly, HIGHLY recommend to anyone of any fitness level. The trail is mostly flat. In fact, much of it has been given a boardwalk. So, it's the Yellow Brick Road, but instead of rufed poppies, you get this:

The trickiest parts of the trail are the suspension bridges.

There are a few of them and they can be a little scary depending on how well you do with heights. I do poorly, but there's weren't many people on the trail, and the bridges didn't move much if no one was on them.

At the end of the trail, you come to a small lake, right at the foot of Aoraki. There was still ice in it.

We had a gorgeous day, clear skies after the rain, but a little too much wind for a perfect reflection.

Okay, one last one because that lake was the best.

Then we started the hike back, the way we came.

We stopped at a picnic bench for lunch. One of the best lunches, ever.

Since the Hooker Valley Trail wasn't super strenuous, we hiked up to Kea Point.

The trail for Kea Point started near Hooker Valley, so we didn't even need to move our car. The hike up was rocky, looked like this the whole way.

The view was really pretty, overlooking a melted glacier. The etched cliffs were left as evidence.

And made our way back down.

Our dinner at Chamois was well-deserved. The food wasn't amazing, but with this view and booze (we caught the tail end of happy hour), the food didn't matter.

And those Aoraki stars.

Goodnight.