Hooker Hut

This route takes you beyond the popular Hooker Valley Walk to the newest edition of Hooker Hut, a scenic destination with fantastic views of Aoraki / Mt Cook.

Starting from the White Horse campground & carpark, follow the Hooker Valley track as if you were going out to the Hooker Lake. This track is very easy terrain, and virtually always busy with tourists. There are three bridges on this track - you want to cross two of them, but if you cross a third you have gone too far.

After the second bridge there are a couple toilets. Just after the toilets, keep an eye out on the boardwalk underfoot for an orange arrow pointing to you left. A faint track in the tussock starts here. This is the lesser-known Hooker Hut track!

The track to Hooker Hut roughly follows Stocking Stream before veering left to the hut. The track here is pretty well-marked and mostly goes through tussocky terrain. There may be a little bit of mud on this section. Hooker Hut has a place in Aoraki's history at the park's oldest hut, first opened in 1910. But it has only been in this location since 2021 -- previous iterations of the hut were on the moraine wall on the left of the Hooker Lake, but the instability of the terrain there was not hospitable to a hut. The hut was restored and moved to this site in 2020. The hut has running water and a toilet. It's a great place to have a break and admire the view of Aotearoa's highest peak.