I don’t need to convince you Mt. Cook / Aoraki National Park is a staple of any New Zealand road trip. Any travel book or satisfied visitor will assert that indisputable fact. I can, however, paint a picture of what particular details have infatuated travellers for decades. 

To list all the reasons you should visit Mt Cook:

• Mt. Cook village is right in the centre of a valley in the Southern Alps. As far as the eye can see, encircling you, are some of the most stunning peaks in New Zealand, the likes of which are only comparable to the largely inaccessible remainder of the Southern Alps. 

• Mt. Cook National Park is part of the Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve. It is so remote that the night sky is completely unpolluted by light for miles. The shocking wonder of this sky will practically smack you in the face. You will be starstruck in the truest sense of the term. 

• Bunnies. Need I say more? Fields and fields of bunnies hopping about the brush. Some of which are not too spooked by us nosy travellers. 

• The road to Mt. Cook is the ultimate entrée for the hungry traveller. Mt. Cook village is completely remote, and there is only one road in, which sidles Lake Pukaki. As you drive, Mt. Cook and all the surrounding alps can be seen in the distance. As you reach the heart of Hooker Valley, the mountains practically tower above the road. 

• Camping at the foot of Mt. Sefton. White Horse Hill Campground sits beyond the village, flanked by Mt. Sefton behind and Mt. Cook to its right. In less than 5 steps from your van, you can be looking at some of the most beautiful views in New Zealand. This makes for some incredible sunrise and sunset photography opportunities, which you well know I took advantage of.

• Mt. Cook National Park is also home to New Zealand’s largest glacier, the Tasman Glacier, which can be viewed from across a ludicrously turquoise lake. 

There is then the question of when to visit Mt. Cook. We visited Mt. Cook in mid-summer, the beginning of winter, and the deep midwinter. Our first visit was on a beautiful summer day, and the park was painted in sunlight and the peaks lightly brushed with snow. Even in summer, we saw glacial icebergs, marbled with teal and deep navy, in Hooker Lake. Our second visit was on a clear day after it had snowed the day before, and the park was a winter wonderland made manifest. The ground was graced with a thick layer of snow, which made for an amazing day hike. The third visit was too cold even for snow, and Hooker Lake, which lies at the foot of Mt. Cook, was completely frozen. We were able to walk onto the frozen lake and sit on the icebergs, which was incredible. If given the luxury of time, you should visit often and witness Mt. Cook anew in every season. 

On the subject of hiking, Mt. Cook has options for everyone. It is most famed for the Hooker Valley Track, which traverses the valley floor and three bridges over the Hooker River and comes to a halt at Hooker Lake at the foot of Mt. Cook. It is the classic Mt. Cook snapshot, and the trek is undertaken by every visitor. It is a flat and short trail, with unmatched views every few feet. But Mt. Cook’s hiking system is far more than the Hooker Valley Trail. There are shorter walks like the Tasman Glacier viewpoint, Red Tarn, or Kea Point, all of which provide unique perspectives of New Zealand’s largest mountain. 

For the brave, there is the ‘stairway to heaven’ that leads to Sealy Tarn, a small tarn 2200 steps above the valley floor that overlooks Mt. Sefton in the foreground and Mt. Cook in the background. But this tarn is only the halfway point, the respite, on the track up to Mueller Hut. Mueller Hut is a serviced alpine hut that you can book overnight and wake for sunrise 1000 metres above the park. It offers the best unobstructed views over Mt. Cook. Mueller Hut is a feat we will be attempting in summer after completing Sealy Tarn earlier this year. 

I will likely never be able to sum up the beauty of Mt. Cook National Park in words. Unfortunately for your purse strings, it is one of those places that demands your visit to truly understand how incredible it is. I can, and have, written for hours in hyperbole about all the incredible places in New Zealand, and Mt. Cook is my favourite (barring Lake Marian). Mt. Cook is the perfect postcard to encapsulate New Zealand’s essence, with conservation and natural phenomena thousands of years in the making displayed at their finest.