We stayed over night at Lake Tekapo in a brand new hostel right on the Lake with an excellent view. The next morning we went straight to Mount Cook to do one of the walks. We did the Hooker Valley walk, which took about 3 hours. Mount Cook was huge and you could spot glaciers on the mountain which stood out as a pure blue ice. We crossed over the river on a swing bridge, a long thin wooden bridge and beneath us was a freezing cold river thundering past. One area had become flooded by the river and we had to hop over rocks to continue. It seemed like the strangest place on earth with a huge lake partially frozen over, with the strangest of colours, pale grey and patches of ice blue. As we got nearer the end it got really cold and hail rained down on us which got on my eye and really hurt. We saw huge chunks of ice just floating down the river, I really felt like I was Frodos journey here. We sheltered by a rock to eat our lunch in this surreal place. The we had to walk all the way back. It was probably the best walk I have ever done.