Fri, 6th Mar, 2026 (part2) O’Neils Reserve free camp, near Cave to Lake Ruataniwha free camp, near Twizel, NZ (Mt Cook & Tasman Lake)

Steve slowly sorting out the vehicle. He found how to turn off the lane assist too as it keeps beeping even when he is driving straight. The cruise control doesn’t work but he says it is a comfortable vehicle to drive except for the very close accelerator and brake pedals. Has to be careful with his big feet with sandshoes on.

View from a rise over the river channels of rivers which bring the water from Tasman Glacier lakes and Hooker/Mueller lakes down into Lake Pukaki. Across more streams - nice views as we enter the National Park.

The road turns as we head to Mt Cook village. Cloud band hanging over the mountain with snow/ice in front of us.

Into Mt Cook Village - not enough parking at the Hermitage Centre. We found a space just off a driveway near the Hermitage Hotel so Steve stayed with the camper and I went down to check in for our Mt Cook Cruise I had booked for this afternoon.

It has been very windy from the west and that has caused the company to cancel the cruises so far this morning. The chap said to come back at 2.30 to see if our 3pm cruise will get the go ahead. If ok we will have to find a place to park! Get on their bus which takes us out to the Tasman Lake car park, we then walk for 1.5km to get on the boat (takes 12 people) and then cruise to the glacier front. 

Back to Steve then we drove down the hill - the hotel is on the side of a mountain. There was a pull-off area on the way down so we decided to just park up there to have lunch - a bit of a slope but at least we have a spot. The wind is certainly a lot stronger here and is whistling across the open flats. Nice view from here while we have lunch.

After lunch we walked back up. View of our camper etc.

Walked along another street to the Dept of Conservation Visitor Centre. Found the car park but it was full too. We headed inside and had a wonderful time checking out all the photos, videos and information. Watched one video which was filmed from a glider plane which was fabulous as we wouldn’t spend the money on that so to see it all for free was great. There are 3 peaks on Mt Cook which are on a 1 mile ridge. The video showed people climbing up to them - crazy.

They had a wind speed display too - doesn’t look good for our cruise.

This is like the Tahr I saw years ago. Lots of other stuffed animals - some loved, some not - like the poor possum.

That passed the time well till we want back to the hotel to get the verdict of our cruise. Great info on their brochure.

Unfortunately it is still deemed too windy so they offered a complete refund or transfer to a cruise tomorrow. We went for the refund as we need to keep moving along.

Back to the camper and down the hill and passed the road to Hidden Valley. Onto the Tasman Valley Road. Fabulous views.

Across Hooker River with the glacier water from Mueller Glacier & Lake.

Continued along the road loving all the scenery.

Long drop waterfall too.

Very busy at the carpark but we managed to find a park.

Still very windy but ok in the nice sunshine. Had a cuppa then went for the walk - up hill! View back down the river valley then continued up the stairs.

Turned off to Blue Lake which was more green and you can’t get around to the other lake so we didn’t bother walking all the way down to it.

Back to the turn off. Looking up at the others going up the mountainside. No need for a jumper as we are warming up with the steps!

Info board and lookout about the lakes on the other walkway. Explains why the lakes are green now due to algae rather than blue because they are not longer fed by the glacier water now the glacier has shrunk.

Good spot for a view back down the valley.

A cloud of dust, not sure if it was from an avalanche or just stirred up by the very strong wind now.

Steve trying to pinch Mt Cook.

Very rocky as we continue climbing upwards.

At last we see the top and when we reached it we were nearly blown back off. Worth the walk up.

Glacier front covered in gravel from the 1991 avalanche. Cleaner glacier visible further along.

Low & Middle Peak visible from here. The information board.

Selfie time - doing well to keep my hat on. Steve flew his jumper.

Headed back - another photo of the valley.

Back down then onto the other track to the boat launch area. When you look at the $209 each ticket we were paying for a 20min drive, 25min walk then return of both which then left only 1 hour on the lake. We got to do the drive, walk and can see the glacier so happy with that. (Note, met someone later on that was on the lake cruise when a big hunk of glacier ice fell off and the boat driver had to quickly back the boat away.)

Interesting cloud formations.

Along to end of the lake and up onto a ‘wall’. The water flows down the Tasman River to the flats then into Lake Pukaki.

The wind is blowing up the dust off the rocks.

Back to the car park then along to the start of Ball Hut Track. Oh dear the bridge is closed so we won’t bother doing this one, haha.

5pm - headed back out. Still very windy. Back over Hooker River. It is a very scenic drive. Looking over the flats to the blue of Lake Pukaki.

Back along the lake edge. Pine plantation on the other side. Sometimes we are on high cliffs above the water.

Spotted the other power station on the other side of the lake. Brown pipes bringing water from Lake Tekapo to this lake.

Back to the main road where we turned right to head to Twizel - cute name for a town. As we rolled down a hill we could see the big canal taking the water from Lake Tekapo on to the next lake of the power scheme.

Then we crossed it. Wide plain surrounded by mountains.

We didn’t detour into Twizel but I did see a disc golf ‘hole’ near the road where they have a course. It is very popular over here. I played a round with Dan at the course at Stratford.

Continued on a bit then across the bridge of Lake Ruataniwha spillway. This lake is the only man-made lake in the McKenzie basin. Checked out the information and big turbine runner then walked across to the lake side.

There is a free camp on the bank of the lake so we went back over the bridge and up the north side of the lake onto Ohau Canal Road. Easy to spot the freedom camping area - it was lined with vans and motorhomes. We found a spot and parked up for the night. Just a small view of the water through the trees.

I walked further along for a better photo. Here the canal that we crossed over from Lake Tekapo enters this lake. There is another canal bringing water down from Lake Ohau, another big lake, further east of here. That water flows into Lake Ruataniwha then through the spillway. It then continues down to the next lake and a few more lakes to the east. We will see some more tomorrow as we head towards Dunedin.

Our route for today - the pen line marks where we camp each night.

Lovely sunset colour on the water.

A few dark clouds about. There was rain forecast for Mt Cook - another reason we didn’t stay for the cruise.