Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park

Covering 70,696 hectares, this park is in the central part of the South Island, deep in the heart of the Southern Alps. Aoraki Mount Cook village lies within the park, while Twizel is the nearest town outside. Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site and contains most of New Zealand high mountains. Twenty two peaks are over 3000m, providing a training ground used by some of the World's best mountaineers.

The Aoraki/Mt Cook Visitor Centre at 1 Larch Grove is fascinating and well worth a visit.

A dayout at Mt Cook under clear skies is a never-to-beforgotten experience. Independent tourists can watch the forecast and seize a sunny day. One of the great advantages of the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park is its proximity. The Mt Cook village at the heart of this world heritage site of some 70,000 hectares, encompassing over twenty 3,000m peaks and New Zealand’s highest mountain and longest glacier, is only a short drive on an excellent road from Tekapo. You can get there in a morning from Christchurch, and although we wouldn’t recommend it, you could even drive from Wanaka, spend the day there and return to Wanaka late in the evening. We think it’s such a magnificent alpine area that you need to spend at least two nights enjoying its beauty.

There are some lovely short walks which give you time to view mountain torrents, glaciers, alpine shrubs, the Mt Cook lily - the world’s largest buttercup - and magnificent snow-covered mountains.

If you haven’t taken a sightseeing flight over the Southern Alps, now is the time. It’s a great thrill to fly in a little ski-plane among the mountains. As you pass the splendid Hochstetter Icefall, you feel you could reach out and touch it, even though you’re far away. And then comes the excitement of your plane touching its skis down on the Tasman Glacier, 29km long and up to 3km wide. There’s time to stretch your legs on the glacier and to take plenty of photos. Skiers of intermediate level can take a plane high up on the Tasman Glacier and have an exhilarating experience skiing down. At the village, a range of accommodation is available for visitors. DOC has provided a basic camping site at White Horse Hill, and at the other end of the scale is the Hermitage Hotel. If you don’t stay there, at least have a drink in its lounge or cafe while you enjoy the view of Mt Cook.

The Maori name for Mt Cook comes from the story of a canoeing expedition that ended in disaster. When their canoe was wrecked, Aoraki and his brothers clung to its highest side to escape drowning. There, they froze to death and turned into stone. Aoraki, the tallest in the family, became the great mountain and his brothers the lesser peaks of the Southern Alps. Captain James Cook sighted the Southern Alps as he sailed along the West Coast in 1770. It was another sea captain who named New Zealand’s highest mountain in Cook’s honour, almost a century later.

Julius von Haast and photographer Edward Sealy explored the area in the 1860s. A London exhibition of Sealy’s photos inspired an Irish pastor, the Reverend William Green to come to New Zealand to climb Mt Cook. He and two Swiss mountaineers tried several times to reach the summit but bad weather and avalanches defeated them. Twelve years later on Christmas Day, 1894, New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, Jack Clarke and George Graham reached the summit. Since then Mt Cook has been climbed many times and the mountains in the National Park have proved an ideal training ground for New Zealanders who have gone on to conquer the great peaks of the world. The best-known of these is Sir Edmund Hillary who, with Sherpa Tensing, was the first to climb Mt Everest.

Carefree Holidays New Zealand by Martin Read

Image Credits: Glen Butler Night and Light Photography, 1870-1900, Dunedin, by Burton Brothers studio, maker unknown, Te Papa, View of Aoraki Mount Cook from valley of the River Hooker by Miguel A. Monjas