The 50 km drive along Mount Cook Road, State Highway 80, is a highlight of touring New Zealand. Ben Ohau Range is to your left, and Lake Pukaki is to your right. Then Aoraki / Mt Cook looms up and provides dream photo ops: stunning, especially in winter.
Once at Mt Cook Village, stay a night or two. Several options exist, from camping to the Hermitage Hotel, which has a nice museum commemorating Sir Edmund Hillary. Then go walking, from the short and easy such as Tasman Lake, a half-day hike in the Hooker Valley, to more hardcore climbs into the surrounding mountains with views to die for.
Aoraki is the tallest mountain in New Zealand at 3,724 m. It is in the centre of the 650 km-long Alpine Fault in the Southern Alps and dominates the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, established in 1953. The park has 140 peaks over 2,000 meters and 72 named glaciers. The fault still uplifts Aoraki, with a major earthquake every 100 to 300 years. The last was in 1717, so it’s overdue!
The peak forms a massif between the Hooker Glacier / Valley and the Tasman Glacier / Valley, with glacial lakes below the glaciers. The easiest way to see the mountain is from viewpoints at the south end of Lake Pukaki and State Highway 80. The best view is from the end of the Hooker Valley Track. This is only 10 km from the peak, with views of the entire mountainside. You can get a partial view from the Hermitage in the village.
Aoraki is also visible from the West Coast, notably Lake Matheson. On calm, clear days, Aoraki and Mount Tasman are reflected in the lake, producing the "view of views." Tours of Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier take you to the massif.
The vegetation west of the mountain is lush rainforest up to the snowline. The east side is drier and affected by a lack of soil due to scree, rock falls, and the effects of glaciation. However, a stunning forest is behind the village, accessed on Governors Bush Track.
Aoraki was known to Māori from their arrival in Aotearoa and is sacred to Ngāi Tahu. According to legend, Aoraki was a son of Rakinui. He and his three brothers sailed their waka (Te Waka o Aoraki) around their mother Papatūānuku and became stranded on a reef. The wind turned Aoraki and his brothers to stone, with Aoraki becoming the highest peak. His brothers formed Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, the Southern Alps. The mountain's Māori name is also interpreted as "cloud piercer," pronounced Aoraki by Ngāi Tahu and Aorangi further north.
Abel Tasman's crew may have spotted Aoraki in 1642, recording a "large land uplifted high" from the Tasman Sea. Captain John Stokes named it Mount Cook in 1851 for Captain James Cook, although Cook did not see the mountain during his voyages to New Zealand.
The first known attempts to summit were made in 1882, and the first confirmed ascent was in 1894 by New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, Jack Clarke, and George Graham. Australian Freda Du Faur was the first woman in 1910, while local guide George Bannister was the first Māori in 1912. Sir Edmund Hillary made his first ascent in 1948, and in 2011, the South Ridge was renamed Hillary Ridge.
Aoraki/Mount Cook is challenging to climb due to unstable weather and glaciation. Since the early 1900s, around 80 have died, and there is a monument at the entrance to the Hooker Valley Track. There are guiding options and excursions to the glaciers if you need to get closer than the head of the Hooker Valley Track.
