Wonderful day at Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park
David_D, Jan 2020
Aoraki-Mt Cook Tasman Glacier & Alpine Centre scenic day tour from Christchurch
We would definitely recommend this tour company if you are staying in Christchurch, because outside of renting a car and trekking yourself, it is the easiest way to get out to see Mt Cook that we could find, and definitely the best value.
We really enjoyed this tour! Mt Cook was beautiful, and so was the Tasman Glacier, and the Lakes. We would definitely recommend this tour company if you are staying in Christchurch, because outside of renting a car and trekking yourself, it is the easiest way to get out to see Mt Cook that we could find, and definitely the best value. The day was long, but very fun!
If you are thinking that there will be a lot of time on this trip spent hiking or exploring the outdoors, this is not the trip for you. This is not a flaw per se, the distance from Christchurch to Aoraki necessitates quite a few hours on the road. You do get some time to hike around at both Aoraki and the Tasman Glacier, but it is no more than about 60 minutes at a time. Both the hiking and driving portions featured great views, but there is far more time spent on the road than on the trail. Be prepared for around 9 hours in the van, with smaller windows of time at each stop, ranging from 10 to 90 minutes outside of the transport at various stops.
The van was comfortable, with great amenities (climate control, WiFi, phone charging, and on-board documentaries). The documentaries were fascinating, and helped make the car ride easier. The tour guides were friendly, approachable, professional, and provided a lot of interesting information. Both of our guides knew their way around a camera, and were happy to help take photos at the various photo opportunities throughout the trip.
We do have a few suggestions on things that could be improved. First, the amount of time we had around lunch to explore the Alpine Center at the National Park didn't feel like enough to make the most of the cost of entry - when we were there we mostly wanted to use the 90 minutes allotted to enjoy the exquisite buffet, and take in the outdoor views of Mt Cook. Stopping to watch an in-door documentary or peruse the museum for too long felt like wasting the opportunity to take in the highlight of the day: the mountains themselves. No one in our trip party stayed for very long in the museum. We mention this because it definitely seems like the cost of the center is included in the package and we didn't really feel like it was necessary to the program - so maybe drop this item and the price of the package, or make it optional. Another small note, while the narration during the trip, on the van was welcome, there were moments where it would have been nice to have no narration or music or film, to allow us to better take in the majesty of our surroundings.
Overall, we had a really great time. We are so happy we were able to see this natural wonder during our brief stay on the South Island. Would recommend!