After finishing our hike in the Hooker Valley we decided that we had time for a quick trip up to the area called Red Tarns before we made our way to Wanaka for the night.
The trail started just outside of Mount Cook Village and almost immediately crossed Black Birch Stream, as we stood on the bridge we had great views up towards the Sealy Range through the valley we would be hiking up.
After crossing Black Birch Stream the trail started to climb, we had been warned that this was quite a steep track, but we weren’t expecting the staircase that clung to the side of the mountain.
Luckily most of the track was in the sunshine and the snow had melted off of the steps which meant that we were able to climb steadily up the steps that zigzagged up the mountainside. The trail climbed over 300 metres (about 1,000 feet) in less than 3.5 kilometres (about two miles), but luckily the views up the valley were a pretty good distraction.
We arrived at the Red Tarns, which were completely frozen, meaning we weren’t able to see the pond weed that gives them their red colour and name. Despite not being able to see the red colour, as we picked our way around the tarns in the snow we were still able to enjoy the scenery.
From the tarns we were able to look out over the Hooker Valley where we had walked that morning and could clearly see across to Mount Cook in the distance.
After exploring the tarns for a while and enjoying the view over the valley we made our way back down the steep trail.
We eventually reached the valley bottom, with our legs burning from all the steps. We crossed back over the river before making our way into Mount Cook Village.
After a quick cup of coffee we continued our drive through the mountains to Wanaka where we were going to be based for the next couple of days.