Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the Canterbury Region in the central-west part of the South Island of New Zealand. It was created in October 1953 and is named after Aoraki / Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand. The park covers an area of 707 km (273 mi) and borders Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. The park includes reserves that were set up as early as 1885 to protect the area’s important landscapes and plants. Glaciers cover 40% of the park, including the largest glacier in the country, Haupapa / Tasman Glacier. In 1990, the park was added to the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Site. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Ngāi Tahu, the iwi who are mana whenua in the region.
At the end of the most recent ice age, about 13,000 years ago, many glaciers in the park were parts of a much larger glacier that covered Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley in hundreds of meters of ice. This glacier extended beyond the southern end of today’s Lake Pukaki, up to 40 km (25 mi) south of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. As the glacier melted, it filled the valleys it had carved, leaving behind the U-shaped valleys seen today in the park. European explorers and surveyors began visiting the alpine area around Aoraki / Mount Cook in the 1850s. Many places in the park were named by or after these early visitors. The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act, passed in October 1998, recognized the original names of some places, creating dual English and Māori names.
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is home to more than 400 plant species, including over 100 that were brought to the area from other places. There are about 35 bird species in the park, including the rare black stilt and pīwauwau. The only road into the park is State Highway 80, which begins 65 km (40 mi) away near Twizel, the nearest town, and leads to Mount Cook Village along the western side of Lake Pukaki. Mount Cook Aerodrome is a small airfield located 5 km (3.1 mi) southeast of Mount Cook Village within the park.
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a popular place for visitors. It has many walking trails, with the Hooker Valley Track being the most well-known. This trail is short and takes about three hours to complete. The park is also a favorite for people who enjoy looking at stars because there is very little light pollution. An area that includes Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park and the Mackenzie Basin was named the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve in June 2012. The park has also been used as a filming location for many movies.
History
In Māori mythology, Aoraki was one of the sons of Raki, the Sky Father. One version of the story says that Aoraki traveled from heaven in a canoe with three brothers—Rakiroa, Rakirua, and Rārakiroa—to visit his father Raki’s new wife, Papatūānuku. However, the canoe overturned. The brothers climbed onto the overturned canoe, and they became the mountains Aoraki (Mount Cook), Rakiroa (Mount Dampier), Rakirua (Mount Teichelmann), and Rārakiroa (Mount Tasman). The canoe itself became the Southern Alps (Kā Tiritiri o te Moana).
Although there is no proof that Māori lived permanently or temporarily in the national park, some tools and signs of burned plants have been found nearby in the Mackenzie Basin. These may be linked to groups of people who visited the area for months to hunt moa or fight others. Māori burned tōtara forests to help them hunt moa and gather food, such as weka, eels, and kiore, before moving to the West Coast to search for pounamu.
In 1896, mountaineer Arthur Harper wrote that Māori had a strong fear of the mountains and preferred to stay in valleys. However, Māori understood high alpine areas well, with special words for different types of ice and snow. Historian Johannes Carl Andersen thought it was possible that Māori crossed the Main Divide, which is at the northern edge of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, to trade pounamu.
According to records from explorer Abel Tasman, it is likely he and his crew saw the Southern Alps in December 1642 from the Tasman Sea near Barrytown. In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed along the West Coast of the South Island. He saw and named the Southern Alps but probably did not see Aoraki. Aoraki was named Mount Cook by Captain Stokes of the ship HMS Acheron in 1851, to honor James Cook’s journey around New Zealand. In 1998, the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act officially recognized the original Māori names of geographical features in Ngāi Tahu’s takiwā (tribal area), creating dual names such as Kirikirikatata / Mount Cook Range and Haupapa / Tasman Glacier.
Europeans became interested in the national park since the 1850s. People’s interest in the alpine areas around Aoraki / Mount Cook grew as early European explorers and surveyors made maps and reports. Julius von Haast explored the area near Lakes Tekapo, Pukaki, and Ōhau in 1862, collecting samples, making maps, and writing detailed reports. From 1867, surveyor Edward Sealy studied many glaciers. Many peaks, glaciers, and other features were named after these explorers, such as the Sealy Tarns track (named after Edward Sealy) and the Mueller Glacier (named after Ferdinand von Mueller).
Public interest in the mountains increased as images of the area were shared. Artists painted pictures, and from 1867–1870, Sealy took photographs of the Mount Cook region. In 1873, the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Bowen, visited the area, raising its profile. Parts of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park were set aside as a recreation reserve in 1885, and the national park was officially created in October 1953.
In 1990, the park (along with Westland Tai Poutini, Mount Aspiring, and Fiordland National Parks) became part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site, the first place in New Zealand to receive World Heritage Status. After the settlement between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown in 1998, the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 changed some South Island place names to include their Māori names. The name of the mountain village and national park was officially changed from Mount Cook to Aoraki / Mount Cook.
Establishment as a national park
Efforts to protect the alpine environment started in the 19th century. In November 1884, a petition was shared with James Sutter, a member of Parliament, asking the government to protect the alpine area around Aoraki / Mount Cook. People who signed the petition were worried that livestock grazing and burn-offs were harming the native plants and trees in the region. They suggested that Frank Huddleston, who had recently purchased land near the Mueller Glacier and was building the Hermitage, be chosen as a ranger to manage the area.
In January 1885, the Hooker and Mueller Valleys were officially declared the Hooker Glacier Recreation Reserve. In 1887, the government permanently protected 97,800 acres of the Tasman Valley above the Mueller Valley confluence, which became known as the Tasman Recreation Reserve or Tasman Park. The Hooker Glacier reserve was expanded in 1890, growing to cover 38,000 acres and becoming the Aorangi Domain.
In 1953, Tasman Park and Aorangi Domain were combined to form Mount Cook National Park. The park, as it was first created, covered 151,780 acres (614.2 km) of the Southern Alps. It included the Mueller, Hooker, and Tasman glaciers, as well as the eastern slopes of Aoraki / Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. The park is now managed by the Department of Conservation and Ngāi Tahu, the iwi who hold mana whenua status for the land.
Geography
The park runs about 60 km (37 mi) from southwest to northeast along the Southern Alps, covering 722 km (279 sq mi) on the southeastern side of the main part of the Alps. Of New Zealand’s 20 mountains taller than 3,000 m (9,800 ft), all except Mount Aspiring / Tititea are within the park. These include Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, which reaches 3,724 m (12,218 ft). Other notable mountains in or near the park are Mount Tasman, Mount Hicks, Mount Sefton, and Mount Elie de Beaumont.
At the end of the last ice age, about 13,000 years ago, many glaciers were parts of a much larger glacier that covered the Hooker Tasman Valleys in hundreds of meters of ice. This glacier was approximately 85 km (53 mi) long and extended beyond the southern end of today’s Lake Pukaki, reaching 40 km (25 mi) south of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. As the glacier melted, it left behind rocks and gravel in the valleys, creating the flat-bottomed, U-shaped valleys seen today. Moraines, or piles of rock and soil, left by the glacier’s retreat can still be seen in the valleys.
Glaciers cover 40% of the park, including the Tasman Glacier in the Tasman Valley east of Aoraki / Mount Cook, which is the largest glacier in New Zealand. Many of New Zealand’s glaciers are located within Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park, such as the Tasman Glacier, Hooker Glacier, Murchison Glacier, and Mueller Glacier. Further north in the park are the Godley Glacier, Classen Glacier, Grey Glacier, and Maud Glacier. Most of these glaciers end at proglacial lakes that formed in recent decades due to shrinking glaciers. Tasman Lake and Hooker Lake are the only two of these lakes with official names, and Tasman Lake is the largest. Boat tours on Tasman Lake, where visitors can see icebergs, are a popular activity.
Temperatures in Mount Cook Village range from as cold as −13 °C (9 °F) to as hot as 32 °C (90 °F). On average, temperatures drop about 1 °C (34 °F) for every 200 meters (660 ft) of elevation. Rainfall varies greatly, with the driest months receiving about 300 mm (12 in) of rain. However, some days may receive up to 537 mm (21.1 in) of rain, and some months may receive as much as 1,447 mm (57.0 in). Snow falls on about 21 days each year.
During the coldest months, Mueller Glacier Lake, Hooker Lake, and Tasman Lake often freeze at least partially. Weather in the park, especially at higher elevations, can change quickly and be difficult to predict.
Geology
The Southern Alps are located along a boundary where two large pieces of Earth's crust meet. The Pacific Plate, to the southeast, moves westward and collides with the Indo-Australian Plate, which moves northward. Aoraki/Mount Cook is located in the center of the Alpine Fault, a 600 km (370 mi) long fault formed by the plate boundary. This fault has broken four times in the last 900 years. Over 45 million years, the collision between the two plates has pushed up 25 km of rock on the Pacific Plate, forming the Southern Alps. Extreme temperatures and heavy rain break apart the surface rock, causing erosion on the steep slopes. In December 1991, an avalanche of 10 million cubic meters of snow and rock removed 10 meters from the top of Aoraki/Mount Cook. Erosion over 20 years after the collapse reduced the height by another 30 meters, bringing it to 3,724 meters, according to GPS data from a University of Otago climbing expedition in November 2013.
The Southern Alps have two main rock types: sedimentary sandstones (greywacke and argillite) found mostly east of the Main Divide, and metamorphic schists found mostly west of the Main Divide. Rocks along the Alpine Fault have been twisted and folded into complex layers with many cracks and breaks. Few fossils have been found in the park's rocks. However, fossils in red argillite from the Malte Brun range date back to the Permian Period.
Ecology
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is home to more than 400 plant species, including over 100 introduced plants such as Russell lupin, wild cherry, snowberries, and wilding pines. Most areas of the park are at high altitudes or in proglacial valleys, like the Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley. The soil in these valleys does not support forest growth. As a result, the only forests and native bush, such as silver beech and tōtara trees, are found along the southern edge of the Hooker Valley and the lower slopes of the Sealy Range.
Most of the park’s plant life consists of alpine plants. Between 1,300 and 1,900 metres (4,300 and 6,200 ft), and in the valleys, the vegetation is mainly snow tussock grassland. Other plants include golden speargrass, large mountain daisies (tikumu) (Celmisia semicordata, Celmisia coriacea), and the Mount Cook lily (Ranunculus lyallii), which is the world’s largest buttercup. These plants bloom from November to February, with flowers appearing earlier on valley floors and later at higher altitudes. At the highest rocks of Aoraki / Mount Cook, 14 species of lichen have been found.
Native plants are threatened by introduced species, such as non-native trees, lupins, broom, and grasses. These plants are mostly found in the valley floors of the Tasman and Hooker Valleys, as these areas are easiest to access. Tutu, a poisonous plant, grows widely in the Hooker Valley during summer. Tutu is considered taonga by Ngāi Tahu.
The park has about 35 bird species, including the kea, the only alpine parrot; the Australasian Harrier (kāhu); the silvereye (tauhou), a small omnivorous bird; the New Zealand falcon (kārearea); and the pipit (pīhoihoi). The tiny New Zealand rock wren (pīwauwau), a threatened species, is the only permanent alpine bird in New Zealand. Small insect-eating birds, such as the rifleman (tītipounamu) and the fantail (pīwakawaka), live in low forests and scrub. A few of the larger birds, the kererū and morepork (ruru), also live there. Introduced birds like finches and sparrows are found near Mount Cook Village. The black stilt (kakī), the rarest wading bird in the world, lives mainly in the braided riverbeds of the Tasman Valley. In 2019, young black stilts raised in a hatchery were released near the Cass River and Godley River. European explorer Julius von Haast reported seeing kākā and piopio in the park in 1862, but piopio later became extinct.
The park is also home to many invertebrates, including large dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, 223 recorded moth species, and 7 native butterflies. The black alpine wētā, also known as the Mount Cook flea, lives above the snowline. The jewelled gecko lives in the park but is rarely seen.
Human interaction
Access to the national park began with a rough path from Twizel along the western shore of Lake Pukaki to the Hermitage. This road, now called State Highway 80, was improved over time. In the 1960s, a major hydroelectric project was started in the Mackenzie Basin. This project required raising Lake Pukaki by 37 meters (121 feet), which would flood parts of the gravel road to the Hermitage. To solve this, a new sealed road was built and finished in 1975. The highway 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. A pedestrian swing bridge was built over the Hooker River in the Hooker Valley in 1911, making it easier to reach climbing routes.
Rodolph Wigley started the Mount Cook Motor Company in 1906 to provide passenger and mail services to the Hermitage from the railhead at Fairlie. The first coaches carried between five and nine passengers, and the journey from Fairlie to the Hermitage took about seven hours, not including a meal break. The service later became Mount Cook Landlines, which transported visitors to Mount Cook Village from Queenstown and Christchurch until 1989. In 1989, the new owner of Mount Cook Landlines, Tourism Holdings Limited, ended the coach services and the Mount Cook brand. In recent years, coach services to Mount Cook Village are operated by InterCity and other smaller companies.
In 1920, after successfully running a bus service to Mount Cook Village, Rodolph Wigley proposed flights from Timaru and Queenstown to Mount Cook. A test flight took place in May 1920, with a plane flying around Aoraki / Mount Cook but not landing. No action was taken on this idea. The first landing in the Mount Cook area happened on December 4, 1934, when Squadron-Leader T. W. White and a passenger flew a Spartan from Timaru, landing at Birch Hill Flat, 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) southeast of Mount Cook Village. Wigley’s Mount Cook Tourist Company then built a small airfield, Mount Cook Aerodrome, at Birch Hill Flat. The aerodrome opened on May 3, 1936. Another airfield, Glentanner Aerodrome, is 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mount Cook Village. Mount Cook Airline began scheduled passenger flights to the area in 1961. In December 2019, Mount Cook Airline was merged into Air New Zealand and stopped operating.
The Mount Cook company developed retractable skis for small aircraft, allowing direct access to snowfields for skiers and sightseers. The first ski plane flight using retractable skis happened in 1955. Mount Cook Ski-Planes and Helicopters is now an independently operated company offering landings on the Tasman Glacier. Helicopters also provide access to the mountains for hunters and climbers. Ski touring is also possible on the Tasman Glacier, with the descent from the top to the bottom covering about 19 kilometers (12 miles).
The village has a small visitor center, which includes housing and amenities for hotel and motel staff and other support workers. The village also has a small public primary school, opened in 1960, which is the only school in New Zealand located inside a national park.
In 1884, Frank Huddleston opened a lodge called "The Hermitage" near the Mueller Glacier to serve climbing groups visiting the area. The hotel was later expanded but was badly damaged by two floods in 1913. The Hermitage was rebuilt on a higher site and opened in 1914, but that building was destroyed by fire in 1957. It was quickly rebuilt and opened in 1958. Since then, the hotel has been altered and expanded several times as tourism grew.
A visitor center in the village displays exhibits about the area’s natural environment and history, as well as an artwork collection. Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park had over one million visitors in 2019, a large increase compared to the 398,000 people who visited in the 2016/2017 season. Tourism dropped significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The park is a popular place for day hikes, sightseeing flights, heliskiing, hunting, kayaking, mountaineering, ski touring, and tramping. The Department of Conservation and Ngāi Tahu manage all activities in the park, including the White Horse Hill camping ground. Recreational helicopter flights and sightseeing planes operate in the national park. Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park also attracts astrophotographers and stargazers because of the low light pollution in the area.
Mount Cook Village is the starting point for several walking tracks, such as the popular Hooker Valley Track, which is 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long (return) and usually takes three hours to complete. About 1,800 to 2,000 people walk the Hooker Valley Track daily during peak season. Sealy Tarns is another popular track in the park. It is more challenging than the Hooker Valley Track and is nicknamed "The Stairway to Heaven" because of its steepness. Guided walking tours are available on some other tracks, and boat trips and kayaking tours for tourists take place on Tasman Lake at the end of the glacier. The park contains 15 huts, mostly in alpine areas.
Management and conservation
In 2018, the Department of Conservation created a plan to manage Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park for the next 10 years. The plan focused on how to care for the land, water, plants, animals, planes, and visitors. However, work on the plan stopped in February 2019 after a Supreme Court decision involving Ngāi Tai, an Auckland iwi. Ngāi Tai argued that the Department of Conservation should consider the Treaty of Waitangi when giving special rights for businesses on protected land. The court said that decisions to give these rights must include checking if they should be kept for Ngāi Tai’s economic benefit and if Ngāi Tai should be given priority. The Department of Conservation paused the plan while discussing this with Ngāi Tahu.
At the same time, the number of visitors to Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park was growing quickly. Between 2016 and 2019, visitors doubled, reaching over one million visits to Mount Cook Village, the main entrance to the park. Ideas to manage the large crowds included a booking system, a fee to enter the park, and a "park and ride" system to reduce traffic in the village. A local Ngāi Tahu leader said that Tourism New Zealand encouraged many people to visit the country without proper infrastructure. The Department of Conservation was worried about managing the increasing amount of human waste and litter in the village and alpine huts. It suggested visitors take their trash with them when leaving the park.
Many non-native animals live in the park or nearby areas. These include stoats, red deer, possums, tahr, and chamois. These animals harm the park’s plants and animals.
In 1904, the Duke of Bedford gave five Himalayan tahr to the New Zealand Tourist Department. The South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society released them in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in December 1904. In 1909, eight more tahr were released in the same area, and their numbers grew. Tahr damage alpine plants, causing soil erosion. Since 1937, the government has tried to control their numbers. The Department of Conservation allows hunting of tahr in the park.
In 1907, the Emperor of Austria gave the New Zealand government eight chamois. The animals were released near the Hermitage Hotel in the Hooker Valley as protected game. Within years, they spread across the Southern Alps. By the 1930s, chamois were harming the alpine environment by eating native plants and damaging soil. Protection was removed, and control measures were created. Today, chamois can be hunted year-round in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park.
In the 1990s, research on kea in Aoraki / Mount Cook found that all 38 live kea tested had traces of lead in their blood, with 26 having dangerously high levels. Analysis of 15 dead kea between 1991 and 1997 found nine had lead levels that could have caused their deaths. After more testing in the 2000s found lead in kea, the Department of Conservation tried to remove all lead sources, like metal parts on buildings in Mount Cook Village. The Kea Conservation Trust continues this work with funding from the Department of Conservation.
After filming for the Lord of the Rings trilogy in national parks, including Aoraki / Mount Cook, concerns about the environmental effects of these activities were raised at a meeting in 2002.
In popular culture
Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park has been used as a filming location for many movies, including Mulan (2020), Vertical Limit (2000), The Lord of the Rings film series (2001–2003), The Chronicles of Narnia film series (2005–2010), and A Wrinkle in Time (2018). Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor in the fantasy adventure film series The Lord of the Rings, was filmed about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away from Mount Cook Village.
First Crossings, a reality show following early exploration in New Zealand, had two episodes related to Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park: "Fyfe and Graham," which covered the first ascent of Mount de la Beche in 1894, and "Miracle in the Southern Alps," which described a 1948 rescue on La Perouse.