My favourite holiday destination – hands-down – is New Zealand. For such a tiny country, New Zealand – or as I like to call it: ‘Kiwiland’ – packs quite a punch! So if you’re looking for your next travel destination, look no further than Aotearoa!  The country offers scores of destinations you can explore on your own without signing up for expensive package tours. 

In fact, even a road trip from one fantastic place to another will remain etched in your memory, long after you have actually reached your destination, or gone back to your ‘regular’ life. ☺

Drive from Wanaka to Mount Cook

One such fabulous road trip we undertook was the 205-km (128 miles) drive from the quaintly charming lakeside town of Wanaka to the scenic heart of Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park in New Zealand’s South Island.

Along this spectacular drive, we witnessed some of the most gorgeous landscapes the country has to offer. As the Kiwis would say, “it was a sweet-as drive, mate!” ☺ If you want to explore New Zealand by road, I highly recommend that you plan your next road trip from Wanaka to Mt Cook. You won’t regret it!

What, where and how

We started in Wanaka and continued a short distance along State Highway 8A to the town of Tarras. SH 8A is just past Wanaka airport (scores of NZ small towns have their own airports – a fact I am constantly amazed by! , so you can’t miss it.

While driving through Omarama, we stopped often to explore and photograph the picturesque sheep farming country around the town. I highly recommend that you do the same. I can guarantee that the vast alpine plains and soaring mountains, including the fascinating Paritea cliffs, will yield pictures that even fancy computer softwares cannot hope to recreate! 

We could have easily covered the distance in about 2.5 hours if we had driven straight through. But that would have been a crime in my book! So we stopped frequently to ogle the rich landscape all around us, and to take millions of pictures (I exaggerate..or.. do I? ☺

While driving intuition just struck Maxi and he parked the car on the shoulder to explore around.

We started walking through the grass uphill (( Talk about rules…Eh?? :))

We were greeted to splendid views from above the small hill. The cyan blue Pukaki lake against the backdrop of snow capped peaks of Mt Cook range brought wide smiles on our faces.

Along the way, we traversed the gorgeous Lindis Valley and Lindis Pass into the Mackenzie Basin before we passed through the towns of Omarama and Twizel. 

We stopped one more time and reached another scenic viewpoint not so touristy. Its always better when you take the diversions.

After we made our way past wide canals, lakes and the small town of Twizel , we arrived at the edge of Lake Pukaki.

To get to Mt Cook Village, you have to drive around Lake Pukaki, and  the lake, with its stunning turquoise colour looks like something out of an artist’s dream. It’s absolutely unreal!

The other reason you’ll fall in love with Lake Pukaki is that it provides you with your first exquisite view of Mt Cook in the distance. A better combination of spectacular water and majestic hills does not exist!

We drove on for another 30 minutes – verrrry slowly! – and finally arrived at our destination, Aoraki Mt Cook National Park. 

Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand. Its literal translation is ‘the land of the long white cloud’.

On arrival in Mount Cook we headed for hotel Hermitage which was our pick up point for Tasman glacier boat ride.

Also Read: Glacier explorers boat ride, Mount Cook

After the boat ride we explored the area for a bit and in the evening we left for lake Tekapo where we had booked our stay for the night. We decided to break our journey from Mount Cook to Christchurch by adding an overnight in Tekapo. I would however suggest for an overnight stay at Mount Cook instead of Lake Tekapo. You can do a quick lunch stop at Tekapo before driving to Christchurch.

The evening drive was as rewarding as the day drive with brilliant evening colors.

Lake Pukaki looked stunning at dusk with reflections of snow capped peaks in its still waters.

The sky became crimson as the Sun made its way to the other part of the world.