Mount Cook National Park

Mount Cook National Park takes in the heart of the Southern Alps and their highest peaks (240). Round the highest of all, Mount Cook (3753m) and Mount Tasman (3496m), cluster 15 other peaks over 3000m and some 200 others over 2500m. Through the national park extends the Tasman Glacier, the largest in the Southern Alps, 29km long and up to 3km wide. Like most of the world's glaciers, it is steadily retreating.

In December 1991 Mount Cook lost 11m in height when a massive avalanche of snow, ice and rock detritus plunged off the summit.

The game introduced into the park in the early 20th C, mostly from Europe, have multiplied to such an extent as to become a real plague. Large numbers of animals have had to be culled, captured or kept in game farms.

The high-altitude skiing areas on Mount Cook offer skiing almost all year round. There are no ski lifts, but light aircraft and helicopters take skiers up to the ski fields.

The Mount Cook National Park headquarters and visitor center, Mount Cook, offers full information on the geology, flora, fauna and ecology of this mountain region. Here too can be obtained information about the condition of tracks, rock climbing and glacier routes and skiing facilities.