After a healing getaway in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village, I bring you this mini-itinerary of what to do and where to stay for a breathtaking few days in this corner of New Zealand. Enjoy some epic photos and I hope you make plans to visit this little village soon.
Aoraki (translates to “cloud piercer”) is the tallest mountain in New Zealand.
Now, stats aren’t enough to impress me. Because of the accolade, many people visit Aoraki every year. Too many, in my slow-travel opinion.
But because of the pandemic, fewer tourists are on the road. And if you think this sounds like a great time to be gallivanting around New Zealand, you’re right. We’ve been having a blast, as you can tell from the blog.
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With that said, there is a way to avoid crowds without needing a pandemic, and still have an incredibly intimate experience with the mountains.
Last month we stayed in Aoraki/Mount Cook village, where we built this mini-itinerary in pursuit of healing, mountainous terrain, and endless spots for epic photos. Enjoy this itinerary stitched with some prose I captured while entranced by this alpine wonderland.
Why plan a stay in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village
Aoraki/Mount Cook Village is everything you would want for a cozy escape into the mountains.
The village is small. You can circulate its entirety by car in under 5 minutes. No shops or high-end restaurants. No bustling markets or pubs.
But that’s the charm of the village.
Aoraki holds a sense of silence not often experienced in this day and age. It tingles the skin and soothes the mind.
Mountains encircle the cluster of buildings, peaking into the heights so that there’s a view from every direction. Roads thread into the valley, bringing you to walking tracks to venture deeper into the mountains.
It’s a place to disconnect from worldly pleasures and reconnect with untouched nature.
A place to feel small and cradled by mother earth.
A place of booming silence, where you can spend your days bundled in a jumper on craggy tracks, studying all the changing colors as clouds move over the peaks from dusk to dawn.
Can you tell I love this place?
When to go to Aoraki/Mount Cook Village
An escape into the mountains usually connotes solitude and awe. But this is hard to access during peak season with tourists abound.
If you’d like to skip the crowd, plan an off-season trip to Aoraki/Mount Cook Village. This is anything outside the summer months of December to March.
But if ice activities aren’t your thing and you’d rather skip the bone chill of winter – it is the mountains after all- the best time to go is autumn (April-May) or spring (October-November).
The crowds will have dwindled and there’s still a nip in the air to rank well on the coziness factor.
Where to stay
Because the village is so small, there are limited accommodation options, many of which are exorbitantly expensive. If that’s your thing, the Hermitage Hotel comes highly recommended. The towering building is a good vantage point for staggering mountain views. And the hotel hosts one of the two cafes in the village.
But if like me, you prefer to travel on a budget, YHA Aoraki Mount Cook is the ideal choice. Small and solar-powered, the backpacker is made entirely made of wood for that cozy cabin mood. And they have a sauna. Although it’s not a large establishment, they do have double rooms if you’d rather not bunk with strangers. And yes, you still get epic views from every window.
How and where to eat
As mentioned, there are only two cafes in Aoraki Village, one of which is inside the Hermitage Hotel. And though the hotel might be out of budget, you don’t need to be staying there to gain entry to the cafe.
This is hands-down one of the coolest cafes I’ve ever been to. The views from the floor-to-ceiling windows are jaw-dropping and include an outdoor terrace, where you can drink sunshine and marvel at the mountains. I’ll let the photos on their website do all the talking.
They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that’s good news because there are no shops in Aoraki Village.
I’ll repeat that. There are no shops in Aoraki / Mount Cook. If you’d rather not eat out, you’ll need to grab your essentials in Twizel or Lake Tekapo.
Otherwise, find a comfy seat at the Hermitage Hotel cafe and ponder the highland peaks over some coffee and pie.
There’s another cafe in the village called the Old Mountaineers Cafe but I was happy enough at Hermitage that I didn’t get to trying it. It’ll be on my to-do list for next time!
What to do in Aoraki / Mount Cook Village
I could lounge at the Hermitage Hotel cafe for days without being bored.
But there is an impressive number of walking tracks around the village to keep you active and entertained.
Top of mind is the Hooker Valley Track, one of New Zealand’s most popular walks. It’s also one of the easiest, with mostly flat terrain twisting past rivers and glaciers to finally glimpse at Aoraki herself, snow-capped in the heights. This track is an experience of walking among giants and getting a front-line taste of rugged alpine nature.
Other smaller tracks carve into Tasman Valley, where you can spend hours exploring blue lakes and climbing little hills for more views over the glacier. There are signposts you can follow by car, where it’s enough to gawk at the sierra and jagged peaks rolling by.
As photographers, we found endless opportunities on these fields to capture some evocative shots and tell stories of Aoraki. Although the park rangers don’t like cars venturing off-road, cycle tracks carve through the fields, providing many options for a frolic.
This was my favorite part of our healing little getaway. The wide open space lifted the spirit. The air felt clean and fresh as I breathed it in, soothing my bones and easing the stress of city-life.
In nature’s quiet, circled by dramatic landscapes, I fell into a fairytale daydream where life was slow and I played in the grass without life’s pressures knocking at my door.
Ever since we left, I’ve been dreaming of going back. There’s magic here unlike any other. I hope you put this itinerary to use for your own healing getaway in Aoraki / Mount Cook village. It’s truly a marvel, a humble nature utopia that deserves all the hype it gets
