Hooker Glacier, Alpine glacier in Southern Alps, New Zealand

Hooker Glacier starts on the south-western slopes of Aoraki / Mount Cook, fed by the Sheila, Empress and Noeline glaciers, and runs south for 11 kilometres to Hooker Lake. Its terminus is a low, greyish-white ice cliff with dark horizontal bands and vertical fractures, topped by a layer of rock and debris. A small white block of ice floats in the lake in front of the cliff.

Julius von Haast, Canterbury's provincial geologist, named the glacier after the English botanist William Jackson Hooker. The lake at its terminus only began forming in the 1970s, left behind as the ice retreated. The glacier is still shrinking, and the lake is expected to grow until the terminus reaches the glacier bed about 4 kilometres upstream.

The name Hooker comes from Canterbury provincial geologist Julius von Haast, who named the glacier after the English botanist William Jackson Hooker. The Hooker Valley Track to the lake is the most popular walk in the region, and three huts further up the valley — Hooker Hut, Gardiner Hut and Empress Hut — serve trampers and mountaineers.

The glacier's terminus and lake are seen from the end of the Hooker Valley Track, an easy walk from the Aoraki/Mount Cook area and the most popular in the region. Serious trampers and mountaineers continue up the valley to three huts: Hooker Hut, Gardiner Hut and Empress Hut. The lake itself only began forming in the 1970s as the ice retreated.

The lake at the glacier's terminus did not exist before the 1970s; it formed as Hooker Glacier retreated. Scientists expect it to keep growing until the ice front reaches the glacier bed about 4 kilometres upstream of its present position.