Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

of New Zealand.

Aoraki / Mount Cook Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, as of 2014, is listed as . It sits in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite ...

, New Zealand's highest mountain, and the eponymous village lie within the park. The area was gazetted as a national park in October 1953 and consists of reserves that were established as early as 1887 to protect the area's significant vegetation and landscape. Even though most of the park is alpine terrain, it is easily accessible. The only road access into Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is via , which starts near

Twizel Twizel () is the largest town in the Mackenzie District, in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town was founded in 1968 to house construction workers on the Upper Waitaki Hydroelectric Scheme. Today, Twizel is a ser ...

, at distance the closest town to the park, and leads directly to Mount Cook Village, where the road ends. The village is situated within the park, however, it consists only of a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and motels, as well as housing and amenities for the staff of the hotel and motels and other support personnel.

Geography

The park stretches for about along the southwest–northeast direction of the

Southern Alps The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) is a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The name "Southern ...

, covering on the southeastern side of the main spine of the Alps. The valleys of the Tasman, Hooker, and Godley glaciers are the only entrances into this alpine territory that lie below . Glaciers cover 40% of the park area, notably the

Tasman Glacier Haupapa / Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand, and one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island. Geography At in length, Tasman Glacie ...

in the Tasman Valley east of Aoraki / Mount Cook. Eight of the twelve largest glaciers in New Zealand lie within Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, all of which terminate at

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ...

s formed in recent decades due to a sustained period of shrinking. In the area surrounding Aoraki / Mount Cook, the Tasman Glacier, Hooker Glacier,

Murchison Glacier The Murchison Glacier is an long glacier flowing through Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. Lying to the east of the Malte Brun range and west of the Liebig Range, high in the Southern Alps, it flows from the T ...

, and

Mueller Glacier The Mueller Glacier is a long glacier flowing through Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It lies to the west of Mount Cook Village within the Southern Alps, flowing roughly north-west from its névé near Mo ...

all terminate in lakes, while further north in the park, the Godley Glacier, Classen Glacier, Grey Glacier and Maud Glacier also end in proglacial lakes.

Tasman Lake Tasman Lake is a proglacial lake formed by the recent retreat of the Tasman Glacier in New Zealand's South Island. In the early 1970s, there were several small meltwater ponds on the Tasman Glacier. By 1990, these ponds had merged into Tasman L ...

and

Hooker Lake Hooker Lake is a proglacial lake that started to form in the late 1970s by the recent retreat of the Hooker Glacier. It is in the Hooker Valley, in the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand's South Island, just south of Aoraki / Mo ...

are easily accessible via walking tracks and are the only two of these lakes that have official names. At an area of , Tasman Lake is the largest of the proglacial lakes and hosts boat trips for tourists. Of New Zealand's 20 peaks over , all except

Mount Aspiring / Tititea Mount Aspiring / Tititea is New Zealand's 23rd-highest mountain. It is the country's highest outside the Aoraki / Mount Cook region. Description Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of . Māori named it ''Tititea'', ...

lie in the park. These include New Zealand's highest mountain, Aoraki / Mount Cook, at . Other prominent peaks include Mt Tasman, Mt Hicks, Mt Sefton and Mt Elie de Beaumont. The mountains of the Southern Alps in general are young, less than ten million years old, and are still building. Uplift in the region of the national park is at the rate of per year. It's estimated that approximately of uplift has occurred, however the rate of uplift has been countered by erosion. The park borders

Westland Tai Poutini National Park Westland Tai Poutini National Park is a national park located on the western coast of New Zealand's South Island. Established in 1960 as Westland National Park to commemorate the centenary of the European settlement of Westland District, it ...

along the Main Divide. Together they form part of

Te Wahipounamu Te Wāhipounamu (Māori for "the place of greenstone") is a World Heritage Site in the south west corner of the South Island of New Zealand. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1990 and covering , the site incorporates four national park ...

South Westland

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

, recognised for its outstanding natural values.

Flora and fauna

More than 400 species of plants make up the vegetation in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, which include more than 100 introduced plant species such as the colourful Russell lupin, the wild cherry and

wilding pines Wilding conifers, also known as wilding pines, are invasive trees in the high country of New Zealand. Millions of dollars are spent on controlling their spread. In the South Island they threaten 210,000 hectares of public land administered by t ...

. Under normal circumstances, forest grows to about , however, most parts of the park are either at higher altitudes above the tree line or in the proglacial valleys such as the Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley, where the rocky soil of the valley floors and moraine walls do not support forest growth. As a result, the only pockets of forest and native

bush Bush commonly refers to: * Shrub, a small or medium woody plant Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to: People * Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name **Bush family, a prominent American family that includes: *** ...

in the park are along the southern edge of the Hooker Valley and the lower slopes of

Sealy Range Sealy may refer to: Places * Sealy Tarns, New Zealand * Sealy Township, Logan County, North Dakota * Sealy, Texas ** Sealy High School ** Sealy Independent School District Other uses * Sealy (surname), a surname (including a list of people with ...

. The plant life in the majority of the park consists mostly of alpine plants. Between and in the valleys, the vegetation is predominately snow tussock grassland, as well as golden speargrass, large mountain daisies/tikumu ('' Celmisia semicordata'', ''

Celmisia coriacea ''Celmisia'' (New Zealand aster or New Zealand daisy) is a genus of perennial herbs or subshrubs, in the family Asteraceae. Most of the species are endemic to New Zealand; several others are endemic to Australia. ; Species and nothospecies #RED ...

''), and Mount Cook lily, (''

Ranunculus lyallii ''Ranunculus lyallii'' (Mountain buttercup, Mount Cook buttercup, or, although not a lily, Mount Cook lily), is a species of ''Ranunculus'' (buttercup), endemic to New Zealand, where it occurs in the South Island and on Stewart Island at altitud ...

''), the largest buttercup in the world. All of these plants flower in the warmer months from November to February – early in the season in the valley floors, and late at higher altitudes. At the highest rocks of Aoraki / Mount Cook, around 14 species of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship. The native vegetation continues to be under threat by introduced plant species ranging from non-native trees through to lupins, broom and non-native grasses. These are mostly contained in the valley floors of the Tasman and Hooker Valley, since they are the most accessible parts of the park. There are about 35 to 40 species of birds in the park including the

kea The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings ...

, the only alpine parrot, and the well-camouflaged

pipit The pipits are a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan genus, ''Anthus'', of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Along with the wagtails and longclaws, the pipits make up the family (biology), family Motacillidae. The genus is wide ...

. The tiny rock wren/pïwauwau, a threatened species, is the only permanent resident high on the mountains. It is unrelated to the rock wren of North America. Small insectivores such as the

rifleman A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifling, rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction o ...

/tïtitipounamu and the

New Zealand fantail The New Zealand fantail (''Rhipidura fuliginosa'') is a small insectivorous bird, the only species of fantail in New Zealand. It has four subspecies: ''R. f. fuliginosa'' in the South Island, ''R. f. placabilis'' in the North Island, ''R. f. pe ...

/pïwakawaka live in the low forest and scrub, along with small numbers of two larger birds, the wood pigeon/kererū and morepork/ruru. Introduced species such as

finches The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

and

sparrows Sparrow may refer to: Birds * Old World sparrows, family Passeridae * New World sparrows, family Passerellidae * two species in the Passerine family Estrildidae: ** Java sparrow ** Timor sparrow * Hedge sparrow, also known as the dunnock or hed ...

live throughout the bush near Mount Cook Village. The

black stilt The black stilt (''Himantopus novaezelandiae'') or kakī (Māori) is a wading bird found in New Zealand. It is one of the world's rarest birds, with 169 adults surviving in the wild as of May 2020. Adult kakī have distinctive black plumage, lo ...

or kakī, rarest wading bird in the world, lives in the braided riverbed of the Tasman. The park is home to many invertebrates, including large dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, 223 recorded moth species and 7 native butterflies. A black alpine

wētā Wētā (also spelt weta) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemic to New Zealand. They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in th ...

, also known as the Mount Cook flea is found above the snowline. The

jewelled gecko The jewelled gecko (''Naultinus gemmeus'') is a threatened species of lizard in the family Diplodactylidae. The species is endemic to the South Island of New Zealand. Subgroups or populations of the jewelled gecko living in Otago, Canterbury, a ...

lives in the park but is rarely seen. Introduced

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

chamois The chamois (''Rupicapra rupicapra'') or Alpine chamois is a species of goat-antelope native to mountains in Europe, from west to east, including the Alps, the Dinarides, the Tatra and the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Ril ...

and

Himalayan tahr The Himalayan tahr (''Hemitragus jemlahicus'') is a large even-toed ungulate native to the Himalayas in southern Tibet, northern India, western Bhutan and Nepal. It is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, as the population is declini ...

can be hunted.

Climate

Temperatures in Mount Cook Village range from to , and typically fall just over for every of altitude. Rainfall is similarly variable, with the driest months receiving around precipitation per month, but recorded maxima of in one day and in a single month. Snow falls on about 21 days per year. During the coldest months of the year, Mueller Glacier Lake, Hooker Lake, and Tasman Lake usually freeze over at least partially. The weather conditions in the park, in particular at higher altitudes can be unpredictable and change rapidly. Anyone venturing further than the walking tracks is strongly advised to notify their intentions at the Visitor Centre on the day you start. This is part of a formal intentions process that operates in the park and is used to initiate formal search operations.

Recreation

The park is popular for

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

tramping Tramping may refer to: Travel *Hiking *Trekking *Tramping in New Zealand, a style of backpacking or hiking * Czech tramping, a Czech outdoors pastime Places * Rural Municipality of Tramping Lake No. 380, Saskatchewan, Canada ** Tramping Lake, Sas ...

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IO ...

and

ski touring Ski touring is skiing in the backcountry on unmarked or unpatrolled areas. Touring is typically done off-piste and outside of ski resorts, and may extend over a period of more than one day. It is similar to backcountry skiing but excludes the u ...

. The

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

administers activities in the park, including the White Horse Hill camping ground. Mount Cook Village is the start of several walks ranging from easy walking tracks such as the popular

Hooker Valley Track The Hooker Valley Track is the most popular short walking track within the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand. At only length and gaining only about in height, the well formed track can be walked by tourists with a wide range of ...

tracks like the steep track to the

Sealy Tarns Sealy Tarns is a small flat area with two small tarns halfway up the northern slopes of the Sealy Range, New Zealand. It is accessible from the Hooker Valley and Mount Cook Village via a tramping track maintained by the Department of Conservation ...

. Some of these tracks also offer guided walking tours, and the nearby Tasman Lake hosts boat trips for tourists. The park contains close to twenty huts, mostly in alpine terrain. The huts range from basic shelters to serviced huts, with the most accessible hut being Mueller Hut, which can be reached from Mount Cook Village within 4 hours. A visitor centre in the village features interpretation exhibits about the area's natural environment and history as well as an artwork collection.

Mountaineering

The spectacular peaks of the Aoraki / Mount Cook region have attracted climbers from all over the world for the last 100 years. The dramatic nature of these mountains provides a rare challenge. The combination of heavy glaciation, tremendous vertical scale and unpredictable weather means that they are not readily won. To climb successfully here requires skill, fitness, patience, and a great respect for the mountains. Mountaineering on the Aoraki / Mount Cook massif is a hazardous activity. Other mountaineering routes include crossing the Aroarokaehe Range via the Copland Pass, the Mount Cook Range via the Ball Pass, and routes crossing the Tasman Saddle further north. All of these routes still require significant alpine mountaineering experience. On the opposite side of the Hooker Valley, Mt Ollivier was

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached t ...

's first major climb, in 1939, and since the establishment of a tramping track to Mueller Hut, not far below the summit, is now one of the easiest accessible mountains in the park. Another mountain popular for mountaineers of intermediate skills is Sebastopol, the closest mountain to Mount Cook Village. At in height, it is only above Mount Cook Village, with the lower half of the ascent following the Red Tarns tramping track. Sebastopol offers one of few view points taking in both the Hooker Valley and the Tasman Valley.

Area history

At the end of the most recent

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

, around 13,000 years ago, the Mueller Glacier, Hooker Glacier, and Tasman Glacier were all tributaries to a much larger glacier covering all of Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley in hundreds of metres of ice and reaching as far as the extent of today's

Lake Pukaki Lake Pukaki is the largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island. The others are Lakes Tekapo and Ohau. All three lakes were formed when the te ...

, up to south of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. As the glacier retreated, it filled the hollowed out valleys with rocks and gravel, leaving behind the flat-bottomed valleys seen today. *1642 – Aoraki possibly sighted by

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first known European explorer to reach New Z ...

and crew members *1770 – Captain Cook named the Southern Alps *1851 – Captain Stokes of the survey ship HMS ''Acheron'' gave the name Mount Cook to Aoraki *1884 – First Hermitage built under the direction of Frank Huddleson *1894 – First ascent of Aoraki / Mount Cook, on Christmas Day, by Jack Clarke,

Tom Fyfe Thomas Camperdown Fyfe (23 June 1870 in Timaru – 1947 in Hastings) was a self-taught New Zealand mountaineer from Timaru. He led the first ascent of Aoraki / Mount Cook (the highest mountain in New Zealand) on 25 December 1894, which included Ja ...

and

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former football player and manager. In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football League as a midfielder or forward for Aston Villa, Ch ...

*1910 – Freda du Faur became the first woman to climb Aoraki / Mount Cook *1911 – The vital swing bridge is built in the Hooker Valley *1913 – First ascents of the footstool and Mt Sefton made by Freda du Faur's climbing party *1913 – Hermitage first ravaged by floods in January, then destroyed beyond repair by floods two months later *1914 – First fatal accident, when three men caught in avalanche on Linda Glacier *1914 – Second Hermitage opened, on different site *1957 – Second Hermitage razed to the ground *1958 – Third Hermitage built (later extended to become the current

Hermitage hotel The Hermitage Hotel, is a historic hotel located at 231 6th Avenue North in Nashville, Tennessee. Commissioned by 250 Nashville residents in 1908 and named for Andrew Jackson's estate, The Hermitage near Nashville, the hotel opened in 1910. It wa ...

) *1960 – First school opens, Aoraki Mount Cook School *1961 – Passenger flights begin by

Mount Cook Airline Mount Cook Airline was a regional airline based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Formerly part of the Mount Cook Group and latterly a subsidiary of Air New Zealand, it operated scheduled services throughout the country under the Air New Zealand ...

, now part of

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacific ...

Link *1975 – State Highway 80 is sealed, improving access to the national park *1982 –

Mark Inglis Mark Joseph Inglis (born 27 September 1959) is a New Zealand mountaineer, researcher, winemaker and motivational speaker. He holds a degree in Human Biochemistry from Lincoln University, New Zealand, and has conducted research on leukaemia. H ...

trapped in

snow cave A snow cave is a shelter constructed from snow by certain animals in the wild, human mountain climbers, winter recreational enthusiasts, and winter survivalists. It has thermal properties similar to an igloo and is particularly effective at prov ...

*1991 – Avalanche of 10 million cubic metres of snow and rock causes 10 metres to be lost off the top of Aoraki / Mount Cook. The landslide carried with it another 40 million cubic metres of rock and ice.The impact caused an earth quake of 3.9 on the Richter scale. Two decades of erosion of the ice cap exposed after this collapse reduced the height by another 30 m to 3,724 m, as revealed by new GPS data from a University of Otago climbing expedition in November 2013. *1998 – The

Ngāi Tahu Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim), Mount Mahanga and Kahurangi Poi ...

Claims Settlement Act officially recognises the original name, renaming the mountain Aoraki / Mount Cook

International Dark Sky Reserve

In June 2012, an area of 430,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) including Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park and the

Mackenzie Basin The Mackenzie Basin (), popularly and traditionally known as the Mackenzie Country, is an elliptical intermontane basin located in the Mackenzie and Waitaki Districts, near the centre of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest suc ...

was declared the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve by the

International Dark-Sky Association The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) is a United States-based non-profit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, a physician/amateur astronomer. The mission of the IDA is " ...

. At the time of the designation in 2012, the reserve was the largest in the world, and the only reserve of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.

Transport

Rodolph Wigley's Mount Cook Motor Co was formed in 1906 to provide services to the area from the

railhead In the UK, railheading refers to the practice of travelling further than necessary to reach a rail service, typically by car. The phenomenon is common among commuters seeking a more convenient journey. Reasons for railheading include, but are ...

at Fairlie.John McCrystal ''On the Buses in New Zealand: from charabancs to the coaches of today'', Grantham House, Wellington, 2007 A small airfield,

Mount Cook Aerodrome Mount Cook Aerodrome is an airport near Mount Cook Village, New Zealand. Regular commercial flights originally ceased in 2002, however from the 23rd of December 2012 to the 27th of January 2013, Air New Zealand subsidiary Mount Cook Airline op ...

, southeast of Mount Cook Village has been served by the Wigley family's New Zealand Aero Transport Company and successor

sporadically since 1921. Road access into the park is via State Highway 80, along the western shore of

. The road ends at Mount Cook Village, with a connecting road leading to the White Horse Hill camping ground. Another small road leads to a car park near Tasman Lake, the start of a short walking track and the Ball Hut Route. Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is the starting point of the

Alps to Ocean Cycle Trail The Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail is a cycle trail funded as one of the projects of the New Zealand Cycle Trail. The trail extends more than from Aoraki / Mount Cook to Oamaru on the Pacific Ocean. The trail has both on and off-road sections. Fund ...

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

. The cycle trail has been constructed from 2010 onwards by the

New Zealand Cycle Trail The New Zealand Cycle Trail project (Māori: ''Nga Haerenga'', "The Journeys") is a New Zealand government initiative, co-funded together with local councils and charitable trusts, which is to build and operate a network of cycle routes throug ...

project. the cycle trail still includes along public roads.

References

External links

Aoraki/Mount Cook National ParkAoraki/Mount Cook National Park Education Resource 2010Mt Cook: Does reaching summit outweigh risks?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoraki Mount Cook National Park National parks of New Zealand Parks in Canterbury, New Zealand Protected areas established in 1953 1953 establishments in New Zealand Astronomy in New Zealand