Mt Cook National Park
Located in the heart of the southern alps, Mount Cook is New Zealand's Highest Mountain at 3764m. The landscape is made up of rock and ice with glaciers making up 40%, there is virtually no forest within the park.
Early Maori called it Aoraki meaning cloud piercer, and is the subject of many Maori Legends. The mountains are seen as ancestors by the Tangata Whenua. Aoraki is sacred above all and Maori do not believe that it is appropriate to climb onto what is effectively the head of such an ancestor.
Europeans were attracted to the mountain and early attempts to climb it were unsuccessful until news that English climber Edward Fitzgerald and the famous Swiss guide Mattias Zurgribben were coming. This News inspired a young plumber from Timaru called Tom Fyfe whom pioneered a new route up the Hooker Valley, with his companions George Graham and Jack Clarke he reached the summit on Christmas day 1894.
Being a mountain environment the flora is restricted to alpine species. The Mount Cook buttercup stands out in summer, these large mountain daisies being the symbol of Mount Cook. Bird life is restricted to the Kea and a few other open habitat species.
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