From unbelievably blue lakes and wide open skies, to jagged mountain ranges piercing the clouds, exploring Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park offers an off-the-beaten-track adventure that will leave you amazed.

/Aoraki/
Mount Cook

Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is home of the highest mountains and the longest glaciers. It is alpine in the purest sense with skyscraping peaks, glaciers and permanent snow fields, all set under a star studded sky. According to Ngai Tahu legend, Aoraki and his three brothers were the sons of Rakinui, the Sky Father. While on a sea voyage, their canoe overturned on a reef. When the brothers climbed on top of their canoe, the freezing south wind turned them to stone. The canoe became the South Island (Te Waka o Aoraki) Aoraki and his brothers became the peaks of the Southern Alps.

Timeline 

Aoraki Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching a height of 3,754 metres (12,316 ft). Aoraki means “Cloud Piercer” in the Ngai Tahu dialect of the Maori language. The mountain lies in a national park of the same name which contains 27 other mountains which peak at over 3000 meters. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favorite destination for mountain climbers. It is is a challenging ascent, with frequent storms and very steep snow and ice climbing to reach the peak. The mountain was first climbed successfully in 1894 by three New Zealanders who reached the summit via the north ridge.

Location

The mountain is in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, in the Canterbury region. The park was established in 1953 and along with Westland National Park, Mount Aspiring National Park and Fiordland National Park forms one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and 72 named glaciers, which cover 40 percent of its 700 square kilometres (170,000 acres). The peak is located at the northern end of the Kirikirikatata/Mount Cook Range, where it meets with the main spine of the Main Divide, forming a massif between the Hooker Valley to the southwest and the Tasman Valley east of the mountain. These two valleys provide the closest easily accessible view points of Aoraki/Mount Cook. A lookout point at the end of the Hooker Valley Track located only 10 km from the peak has views of the entire

mountainside. The settlement of Mount Cook Village, also referred to as "Aoraki / Mount Cook", is a tourist centre and base camp for the mountain. It is 7 km from the end of the Tasman Glacier and 15 km south of Aoraki/Mount Cook's summit. On clear days,

Aoraki/Mount Cook is visible from the West Coast as far north as Greymouth, some 150 kilometres away, and from most of State Highway 80 along Lake Pukaki and State Highway 6 south of Lake Pukaki. The near horizontal ridge connecting the mountain's three summits forms a distinctive blocky shape when viewed from an eastern or western direction. Another popular view point is from Lake Matheson on the West Coast, described as the "view of views", where on calm days, the peaks of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mt Tasman are reflected in Lake Matheson.

Local climate

The meteoblue climate diagrams are based on 30 years of hourly weather model simulations and available for every place on Earth. They give good indications of typical climate patterns and expected conditions (temperature, precipitation, sunshine and wind). The simulated weather data have a spatial resolution of approximately 30 km and may not reproduce all local weather effects, such as thunderstorms, local winds, or tornadoes. You can explore the climate for any location like the Amazon rainforest, West-Africa savannas, Sahara desert, Siberian Tundra or the Himalaya. 30 years of hourly historical weather data for Aoraki/Mount Cook can be purchased with history+. Download variables like temperature, wind, clouds and precipitation as CSV for any place on Earth. The last 2

weeks of past weather data for Aoraki/Mount Cook are available for free evaluation here. The "mean daily maximum" (solid red line) shows the maximum temperature of an average day for every month for Aoraki/Mount Cook. Likewise, "mean daily minimum" (solid blue

line) shows the average minimum temperature. Hot days and cold nights (dashed red and blue lines) show the average of the hottest day and coldest night of each month of the last 30 years. For vacation planning, you can expect the mean temperatures, and be prepared for hotter and colder days. Wind speeds are not displayed per default, but can be enabled at the bottom of the graph. The precipitation chart is useful to plan for seasonal effects such as monsoon climate in India or wet season in Africa. Monthly precipitations above 150mm are mostly wet, below 30mm mostly dry. Note: Simulated precipitation amounts in tropical regions and complex terrain tend to be lower than local measurements. The graph shows the monthly number of sunny, partly cloudy, overcast and precipitation days. Days with less than 20% cloud cover are considered as sunny, with 20-80% cloud cover as partly cloudy and with more than 80% as overcast. While Reykjavik on Iceland has mostly cloudy days, Sossusvlei in the Namib desert is one of the sunniest places on earth. Note: In tropical climates like in Malaysia or Indonesia the number of precipitation days may be overestimated by a factor up to 2. The maximum temperature diagram for Aoraki/Mount Cook displays how many days per month reach certain temperatures. Dubai, one of the hottest cities on earth, has almost none days below 40°C in July. You can also see the cold winters in Moscow with a few days that do not even reach -10°C as daily maximum.

Naming and European discovery

Aoraki means "Cloud Piercer" in the Nga-i Tahu dialect of the Maori language. Historically, the Maori name has been spelt Aorangi in the "canonical" Maori form. The first European known to see Aoraki/ Mount Cook was Abel Tasman on December 13, 1642 during his first Pacific voyage. The English name of Mount Cook was given by Captain John Lort Stokes to honour Captain James Cook who first surveyed and circumnavigated the islands of New Zealand in 1770. Captain Cook did not sight the mountain during his exploration.Following the settlement between Nga-i Tahu and the Crown in 1998, the name of the mountain was officially changed from Mount Cook to Aoraki/Mount Cook to incorporate its historic Maori name, Aoraki. As part of the settlement, a number of South Island placenames were amended to incorporate their original Maori name. Signifying the importance of Aoraki/Mount Cook, it is the only one of these names where the Maori name precedes the English. Under the settlement the Crown agreed to return title to Aoraki/Mount Cook to Nga-i Tahu, who then formally gifted it back to the nation.

Geology

It is estimated that the Southern Alps, in comparison to other native landforms, were produced through tectonic uplift ten million years ago. The region consists of several rock forms such as haast schist meta greywacke, which is found all along the main divide and throughout Otago. Before long-term erosion, the Southern Alps are believed to have been several kilometres higher. Today, a tectonic uplift of 5 to 10 mm works against constant erosion. Mount Cook National Park is to New Zealand what the Himalayas are to Asia. It is home to some of the country's highest peaks, 19 of them reaching over 3000 m. Above all, Mount Cook overlooks the Southern Alps measuring about 3724 m. Joining it on the unrivalled scale is the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's longest which is 27 km in length. Mount Cook National Park was established in 1953. Today the park covers an area of 71,000 ha of which 40% are canvassed by ancient ice sheets. These sheets split the park into five main valleys which are Tasman, Godley, Murchison, Mueller and Hooker Valley. The park's southern entry is marked by the Tasman Valley that forks into two directions leading to the Tasman Lake in the east and the Hooker Valley along Mount Cook Village in the west. Towards the park's western border rises Mount Cook and its adjoining, snow-covered peaks. Mount D'Archiac is the highest top along the park's northern border. From here, several fresh- and meltwater streams flow into the Godley Valley and feed Lake Tekapo further south. In total, the park counts 72 glaciers, eight of the largest glaciers in New Zealand are found here. Glacial lakes are often found at the base of such ice sheets. The Tasman Glacier is the largest of them all covering three kilometres in width, 27 km in length and 0.6 km in height.

Surrounding forests and glaciers

Today the park is recognised as one of the finest mountaineering areas in the world, for both experienced and novice climbers. For less skilled adventurers, there are plenty of great smaller mountain walks that lead to alpine tarns, herb fields and exquisite glacier views. Aoraki Mount Cook is also home to the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s largest and longest glacier. It’s 27km long and up to 3km wide and slowly carves the valley sides, as it has done for millennia. Sediment from the glacier-ground rock creates opaque, milky lakes, and the flat valley floor provides a landing place for small planes and helicopters. Guided ski trips, suitable for intermediate skiers, can be taken down the glacier. Helicopters and ski-planes have access to the park’s glaciers, too. From October until May, you can also explore the Tasman Glacier’s terminal lake on a boat trip.

Climbing history 
First ascent of Mt Cook 
25 December 1894
At 1.30 on the afternoon of Christmas Day 1894, while many New Zealanders were relaxing and enjoying festive fare, three young men based at the Hermitage became the first to stand atop 3764m Aoraki/Mt Cook, the highest mountain in the colony. Jack Clarke, Tom Fyfe and George Graham, along with other local climbers, had been spurred into action by news that the American climber Edward Fitzgerald and the famous Swiss/Italian guide Matthias Zurbriggen were on their way to New Zealand. The pair arrived in the country in late December. Modern mountaineering began in the Alps in the 1850s and soon peaks around the world were being scaled by adventurous young men. In 1882, Irishman Reverend William Green and two Swiss guides got to within 60m of the summit of Mt Cook via the Linda Glacier, a point that was reached again in 1890 by New Zealanders Guy Mannering and Marmaduke Dixon. Mt Cook was not a huge technical challenge for

experienced climbers. Given favourable weather, Fitzgerald and Zurbriggen would undoubtedly succeed. But could colonials beat them to it? After several unsuccessful attempts via the Linda Glacier route, Fyfe and Graham decided to try to reach the summit from the Hooker Glacier, west of the peak. On 20 December they scaled Mt Cook’s previously unclimbed Middle Peak (3717m). Joined by Clarke, they renewed the assault on their main target two days later. Before dawn on Christmas Day, Fyfe, Graham and Clarke donned nailed boots and swags, roped themselves together, grasped ice-axes and began climbing from their high camp. By late morning they were well up the north ridge, muffling their faces against a ‘piercingly cold’ wind. Early in the afternoon they glimpsed the summit ice cap just 120m above them. After cutting more than 100 steps in the hard blue ice, the trio ‘gleefully’ shook hands on the ‘very highest point of New Zealand’. The trio returned to the Hermitage at lunchtime on Boxing Day after an arduous descent in near-darkness. News of their success reached Timaru on the 30th and was published in newspapers on New Year’s Eve. Fitzgerald was not pleased. 

Maori history, legends and traditions

According to Maori legend, Aoraki was a young boy who, along with his three brothers, were the sons of Rakinui, the Sky Father. On their voyage around the Papatusnuku, the Earth Mother, their canoe became stranded on a reef and tilted. Aoraki and his brothers climbed onto the top side of their canoe. However, the south wind froze them and turned them to stone. Their canoe became the Te Waka o Aoraki, the South Island, and their prows, the

Marlborough Sounds. Aoraki, the tallest, became the highest peak, and his brothers created the Ka Tiritiri o te Moana, the Southern Alps. Ngai Tahu, the main iwi (tribe) of New Zealand's southern region, consider Aoraki as the most sacred of the ancestors that they had descended from. Aoraki brings the iwi with its sense of community and purpose, and remains the physical form of Aoraki and the link between the worlds of the supernatural and nature.

Aoraki/Mount Cook is the largest country in Central New Zealand. Best place for your travel, so you can travel.