We left Wanaka early in the morning and started our drive to Twizel, where we plan to stay that night. Twizel provides a great base to explore Mt.Cook National Park and is a part of the famous Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, with light pollution strictly controlled in the area.

The road felt like a continuation to the crown range road from Queenstown to Wanaka with similar landscape.

As we got closer to Twizel, we saw several snow capped mountains on our way making us feel like a perfect day to explore Mt. Cook National Park.

We crossed Twizel and headed to the base of Hooker Valley track in Mt. Cook National Park and then the beautiful Lake Pukaki in milky color followed us along our way.

By the time we reached Hooker valley track, all the mountains around us were covered with dense clouds with very less visibility and it started raining.

We started our trek in the rain and reached the first bridge of the track, after which the track was closed as the second bridge collapsed due to heavy rains.

It felt mystical being there in between the clouds and mountains. We enjoyed the moment for a while before the greedy inner self hoped for the sun to come back clearing all the clouds to give us a good view of the mountain peaks.

We wanted to go on a different trek as the Hooker valley was closed. We waited there for sometime, for the rain to subside and for the sun to rise above the clouds. With no signs of it happening, we started our journey back to Twizel.

Lake Pukaki was an absolutely stunning lake and I feel in love with its color instantly.

It was an amazing treat for eyes to watch the reflections of the clouds and mountains in the lake.

We booked our stay in a farm house a few mins outside the town to watch the night sky. We were excited about the fact that we got a chance to stay in the Dark Night reserve for the first time. We checked the sky multiple times in the night, but the sky was completely covered with clouds that we couldn’t even spot a single star, forget the galaxy 😦

It felt like a completely unlucky day with Lake Pukaki being our only savior! Hoping for a brighter day tomorrow.