Mount Cook

The highest peak in Oceania

At 3750m or 12,303ft. Mt Cook is the highest peak in Oceania. The Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park is New Zealand's great alpine park. It has the highest mountains and the largest glaciers. The park was formally declared in 1953, and in combination with Westland National Park is one of the United Nations World Heritage Parks. The park contains more than 140 peaks standing over 2,000 m (6,500 ft) and 72 named glaciers, which cover 40% of the park's 700 km² (173,000 acres). The settlement of Mount Cook Village (also known as The Hermitage) is a tourist centre and base camp for the mountain. It is 7 km from the end of the Tasman Glacier, 12 km south of Aoraki / Mount Cook's summit.

Mount Cook Paradise flight

Our 45 minutes helicopter flight took us on a discovery of the Aoraki / Mt Cook National park. We flew the full length of the Tasman, Fran Josef and  Fox glaciers viewing this incredible Alpine region with amazing views of New Zealand's highest peak Aoraki Mt Cook before landing on the magnificent Tasman Glacier. The previous day our helicopter pilot had taken 3 climbers to the mountain but an avalanche in the afternoon had fateful results and all were lost, assumed dead. We circled for many minutes to see if there was any sign of movement on the ground.

Tasman Valley 4WD & Argo Tour

An interesting adventure with grand views of the Tasman Glacier and its gigantic moraine walls.  Our friendly local guide entertained us with his wealth of knowledge and local stories.  We took a short walk to a vantage point overlooking the Tasman Glacier and Terminal Lake which provided spectacular views of the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.

Glacier Explorers Tour

The only tour of its kind in New Zealand and one of the only accessible glacial lakes containing icebergs in the world. Our boat trip took us around the lake viewing the icebergs of every shape and size that periodically tear away from the face of the glacier into the lake. The lateral moraines of almost 200m remind us of the scale and greatness that the glacier has reached in previous times. Now approximately 27km long and 600m deep, the Tasman Glacier is melting and calving at an exponentially increasing rate, resulting in a terminal lake that is rapidly increasing in size.