Mount Aspiring National Park

Mount Aspiring National Park headquarters and visitor center, Wanaka; ranger stations at Glenorchy on Lake Wakatipu and Makarora on the Haast Pass road (Highway 6).

New Zealand's second-largest national park, a region of alpine landscape bordering on Fiordland National Park to the south, centers on 'New Zealand's Matterhorn', the 3027m Mount Aspiring. The mountain was given its name by the surveyor John T Thomson, who saw it from a distance in 1857. It was first climbed in 1909. Round this massive rock pyramid other peaks, form a mountain rampart when seen from a distance. Lake Wanaka and Lake Wakatipu are fed by rivers flowing down from the Mount Aspiring massif. The national park displays almost the complete range of glacial features, including glacier lakes, ground, lateral and terminal moraines, roches moutonnées, hanging valleys and glacial striations. The main access route is the Haast Pass road (Highway 6), an impressive mountain road that runs along the east side of Lake Wanaka and bounds the National Park on the north.

The road from Wanaka through the Matukituki Valley runs close to Mount Aspiring. It can often be first seen from Glendhu Bay, southwest of Wanaka.