Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park contains New Zealand's highest peak (Aoraki/Mount Cook, 3,724m) and seven of the country's ten tallest mountains, along with the Tasman Glacier — the largest glacier in New Zealand at 27 kilometres long. The park covers 70,000 hectares of ice, rock, and beech forest in the heart of the Southern Alps and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the adjacent West Coast parks.
The Mount Cook Village, at the far end of State Highway 80 from Lake Pukaki, is the base for most visits. The three main walks are accessible from the village without a guide: the Kea Point Track (90 minutes return, views to the glacier terminal lake), the Hooker Valley Track (3 hours return, stunning valley walk with swing bridges to a glacial lake directly below the mountain), and the Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier View Track (3 hours return). The Hooker Valley Track is the most spectacular and most visited; go early in the morning. For serious mountaineers, Aoraki's summit ridges are technically demanding and best attempted with a guide. The park's skydiving, ski-plane, and helicopter operations offer aerial views that make the scale of the glaciers comprehensible.