Mt Cook National Park covers the central and highest area of the Southern Alps, east of the main divide.

Specific references for this page: Gerald Cubitt and Les Molloy 1994: Wild New Zealand. New Holland. Craig Potton 1998: National Parks of New Zealand. Craig Potton Publishing. The Alpine World of Mt Cook. Lands & Survey/Cobb Horwood 1984. Wild New Zealand 1981. Reader's Digest New Zealand National Parks, 1979. Collins Nature Heritage Series. Robbie Burton & Maggie Atkinson 1998: A Tramper's Guide to New Zealand National Parks. Reed John Cobb 1990: The Walking Tracks of New Zealand's National Parks. Viking. Hugh Logan 1994: The Mt Cook Guidebook. NZ Alpine Club.

Created in 1953, it stretches 65 km (40 miles) along the main divide for an area of 70,700 hectares (176,750 acres).
It is high mountain land, with steep mountains of rock and ice rising high above the valley floors (Mt Cook stands nearly 3000 m (9842') above the lower Tasman Glacier). All peaks higher than 3000 m (9842') in New Zealand except Mt Aspiring are within the Park, as well as the longest glaciers. Forty percent of the total area is still covered in glacial ice.
Mt Cook National Park has been the centre for mountaineering in New Zealand for over a century (Mt Cook was climbed in 1894).
See below: Activities - What to see and do in Mt Cook National Park

Geological setting
The rocks are greywacke (part of the Torlesse Supergroup) throughout the park, with a gradual transition to schist (Haast Schists) west of the main divide.
See also Rocks of the New Zealand mountains

Like the rest of the Southern Alps these mountains are young: the Kaikoura mountain-building phase (Kaikoura Orogeny) which gave rise to them started 7 million years ago, and is still underway. The current rate of uplift in the central Southern Alps, including the Mt Cook area, is about 5 mm (0.2 in.) per year.
The mountains of Mt Cook National Park were intensely carved by the glaciers of the quaternary ice ages. At the height of the latest ice age, 18,000 years ago, the length of Tasman Glacier was 85 km (53 miles), as opposed to 28 km (17.5 miles) today. At the location of the current Mt Cook Village the glacier's thickness was nearly 800 m (0.5 mile).
See also the Southern Alps

Climatic conditions
New Zealand lies at the northern edge of the belt of low pressures that circle the southern oceans (the Roaring Forties) from west to east. This sets the general weather pattern in the Southern Alps and the South Island, with a succession of low pressure systems that bring strong westerly winds and bad weather, and high pressure systems that generally bring gentler winds and fine weather.
   Cold and warm fronts can pass in close succession and result in a very changeable weather. However this pattern does not preclude the occurrence of longer periods of either good or bad weather.
  The actual weather in the park results from the effect of the mountains on the general weather pattern. The Southern Alps force moist air to rise and condense. Accordingly on the western side of the mountains precipitation increases from sea level to the summits of the main divide, where it reaches some of the highest levels in the world (8,000 to 15,000 mm/315 to 590 in. of water per year), much in the form of snow (50 m/164' in the neves of Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers).
  East of the divide the precipitation rate falls sharply, due to the rain shadow created by the mountains. At Mt Cook Village 7 km (4.3 miles) east of Mt Sefton precipitation is down to 4,000 mm (157 in.) per year, with a recorded daily maximum of 537 mm (21 in.). The southern end of Lake Pukaki, 55 km (34 miles) away, is among the driest places in New Zealand, with an annual 580 mm (23 in.).
  A second effect of the mountains is to disrupt the general weather pattern, resulting in increased unpredictability, and very rapid changes. This specific characteristic of the Mt Cook area and the Southern Alps adds to the difficulties facing mountaineers.
   See also The climatic influence in the New Zealand mountains.

Vegetation
   Image on right: mountain daisy (Celmisia). Photo NC.
While there is hardly any forest in Mt Cook National Park, the diversity of mountain plants is considerable: there are some 550 species, not counting mosses, liverworts, lichens and algae. All but 135 of them are native to the region.
  This follows the general pattern of New Zealand's alpine flora, which is rich in species, most of which are endemic (93%) and have no close relatives anywhere in the world.
  The near absence of forest (there are small patches of silver beach and totara in the lower valleys) is a result of the combination of natural factors (climate, steep slopes, absence of soils), and human action (fires set by Maori, then the Europeans, and damage by introduced animals such as deer, chamois, thar, rabbits and hares).

Among the most distinctive species of mountain plants that can be found in Mt Cook National Park:

• giant mountain buttercup (incorrectly called Mt Cook Lily),
• mountain daisy,
• snow gentian,
• golden spaniard,
• yellow buttercup,
• vegetable sheep,
• South Island Edelweiss.

The introduced multicoloured lupins have also become a distinctive floral feature of the lower valley floors of Mt Cook National Park.

Birds
Mt Cook National Park offers four main types of habitats that are occupied by a range of bird species: alpine, bush, tussock grasslands, and riverbeds.

Alpine birds
  Although they can frequently be encountered above the tree line and in snow areas, keas prefer to live at the timberline. Keas are mountain parrots, related to kakas, and are now restricted to the Southern Alps, as well as the mountains of Otago, Westland, Nelson and Marlborough. Their numbers have been dramatically reduced by hunting over the last century. They were accused by farmers of attacking sheep and causing injuries and deaths. Although this fact has been confirmed, its extent seems to have been greatly exaggerated. Keas are now protected by law.
  Keas are intelligent, social, highly inquisitive birds. They are often seen around tramping huts, or in flocks at ski fields. At Mt Cook they can sometimes be seen at the Village.

The other alpine bird of Mt Cook National Park is the rock wren, a tiny, round-shaped bird that lives between 1200 and 2400 m (3937-7874'), and seldom leaves the alpine zone.

Forest birds
Despite the scarcity of forest in Mt Cook National Park, a variety of forest birds are present. Bellbirds and tuis have rarely been recorded, but common species include riflemen, bellbirds, tomtits, and silvereyes.

Birds of the riverbeds
  Riverbeds are a significant ecosystem in Mt Cook National Park because of the large braided rivers. They provide feeding grounds for migratory and wading birds such as the wrybill, black-fronted terns, banded dotterels, South-Island pied oystercatchers, and pied stilts. The endangered black stilt, found only in the upper Waitaki, can occasionally be seen.
  Other common birds of the riverbeds are geese and ducks, paradise shelducks being the most conspicuous bird species at Mt Cook Village along with keas.

Birds of prey
Australasian harriers are a common sight in the lowlands and tussocklands in and close to Mt Cook National Park. Also present although less common is the New Zealand falcon.

Insects
Butterflies, grasshoppers, spiders and other native insects are common in the park. Perhaps the most distinctive of these insects is the alpine weta, which lives above the snowline and can be seen at altitudes above 3000 m (9842').

Introduced animals
The most conspicuous are probably rabbits and hares, as well as birds such as sparrows, finches and blackbirds.
Also widespread are chamois, Himalayan thar and red deer.

Activities - What to see and do in Mt Aspiring National Park

Short and day walks
  Mt Cook is the great alpine park of New Zealand, straddling the highest and most glaciated part of the Southern Alps. Most deep forays into the park will involve mountaineering rather than tramping, although the Copland Pass and Ball Pass crossings belong to that category.
  Starting from Mt Cook Village as well as the end of Tasman Glacier, a number of short walks provide excellent opportunities to enjoy many of the spectacular features of the park. In the Tasman Valley a short walk leads to a good view over the lower Tasman Glacier and its terminal lake, in its setting of mountains that include Mt Cook and the Malte Brun Range.
  The Hooker Valley walk offers the spectacular scenery of the huge hanging glaciers and icefalls of Mt Sefton and the Footstool, before opening to a full view of the south side of Mt Cook.
  The walk to Sealy Tarns offers elevated views over the Hooker Valley, Mt Sefton, Mt Cook and other surrounding mountains. Further up on the way to Mueller Hut the view stretches to the Tasman River and Lake Pukaki.

Mountaineering
Mt Cook National Park is the major area for mountaineering in New Zealand and Australasia. It contains all but one of the summits of more than 3000 m (9842'), and over 40% of its area is glaciated. Numerous ascents of all grades are possible, including ice faces, snow aretes, rock buttresses, and more. While altitudes are not extreme (Mt Cook is 3754 m/12316'), huge faces (such as the 2200 m/7218' high Caroline face of Mt Cook), remoteness (such as the Balfour face of Mt Tasman) and sheer steepness provide challenges for the most demanding climbers.

Ski-touring
The mountains of Mt Cook National Park offer a vast choice of routes and possibilities for ski-mountaineering. A four day trip leads from the head of the Murchison Valley to the neve of Fox Glacier in Westland National Park. There is also an established tourist activity of skiing the Tasman Glacier, based on taking the skiers by ski-plane to a landing spot at Tasman Saddle.