Viator Tour Review of Mount Cook: The Highest Mountain in New Zealand!

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This tour is advertised as Mount Cook, Lake Tekapo, and Tasman Glacier on Viator.

TLDR: If you can’t drive yourself or don’t want to, this tour is a nice way to see some of the beauty of the South Island.

The total drive time to and from Christchurch was 8-9 hours. Thankfully the bus is comfortable and the drive is beautiful. There are plenty of breaks, but bring a power bank because there are no outlets on board.

It is one of those tours where you’re basically getting out to take photos and jumping back on the bus, so just know what you’re getting into, but there were no awkward souvenir stops.

Food options are also very limited in the winter so you’re pretty much forced to eat at the Hermitage Hotel, which was okay, and they do have beer and wine options.

They had a philly cheesesteak on sale which got me really excited, but it was made with lamb and it was… not good lamb or a philly cheesesteak. You’re probably better off with more traditional options.

The lakes were beautiful, but they weren’t that gorgeous turquoise color you often see on social media when I visited.

The main reason I jumped on this tour was because I wanted to do the glacier walk, but the roads were snowed in so we did an alternative 20 minute walk instead. Not the fault of the tour operator at all, but I was pretty disappointed.

Mount Cook is still a gorgeous park and I will happily return with my own vehicle and on my own schedule some time soon.

The tour was a really nice way to spend my birthday and get out in nature without having to rent a car and make a bunch of decisions that I didn’t have the energy for.

You can book this tour or any others from Viator for 15% off using this link.

Locations:
📍Lake Tekapo
📍Lake Pukaki
📍Mount Cook National Park