Monday 19th March 2007. Mount Cook. New Zealand.

Up early and after a hearty breakfast Alex and I set out to hike the Hooker Valley. Our first point of interest is the site of the original Hermitage Hotel which was the first accommodation house in the National Park.

A construction of cob and adobe the Hermitage was built by Mt Cook's first ranger M. C. (Frank) Huddleston at White Horse Hill in 1884. The building was soon to be clad with corrugated iron as it could not withstand the harsh alpine weather.

In 1885 a group of South Canterbury runholders and businessmen formed the Mt Cook-Hermitage Company and they took over Huddleston's Hermitage. However this company was destined to get into financial difficulty and after expanding too much the government stepped in and took over.

Circa 1911 with tourism on the increase and accommodation in demand the new owners decided to upgrade and built an extension on the site. But in January 1913 after 16 days of rain, the Mueller River broke its banks at Kea Point and water flowed through the Hermitage of White Horse Hill. The following month the Mueller flooded again. This time carrying the annex to the Hermitage with it and depositing the building downstream. The Hermitage was now damaged beyond repair and as a result a second Hermitage opened in 1914 on the site of the current and third Hermitage.

Miss Freda Du Faur the Australian climber who was the first woman to ascend Mt Cook was in The Hermitage at the time of the great flood with chief guide Peter Graham.

The Hooker Valley is home to some of the highest mountains in the Southern Alps which formed around two million years ago and our next stop is the Alpine Memorial to all those lost to the slopes. Refurbished in 1994 the memorial was rededicated to commemorate 100 years of New Zealand Alpinism.

Although less than 50km from the Tasman Sea the only direct route to the open waters consists of a three day climb over the 7,000ft Copland Pass.

We continue on to the Mueller Lake Lookout and the Stocking Stream enroute for Hooker Lake.

The glaciers here are fed with snow created by the high mountains and the moist westerly air steam. I find the glacier at Hooker Lake much less impressive than when I recently visited Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina.

Whilst Moreno melts vertically and displays a beautiful ice field, the Hooker Glacier melts horizontally and as such it is covered by sediment giving it a dirty appearance and making the lake waters grey.

The majesty of Mt Cook unfolds as we hike on a beautiful sunny day and my thoughts turn to that first ascent on Christmas Day 1894 when Jack Clarke, Tom Fyfe and George Graham reached the summit.

Tonight Alex and I dine at The Glencoe.

News Update... A lahar (a burst in the crater wall) meant that yesterday, Sunday, the crater lake at Mt Ruapehu began to tumble down the mountainside. Unlike the Tangiwai Disaster of 1953 there were no injuries this time in the National Park area where I was just a few weeks ago.