Family Vacation Deals - Mount Cook - The Cloud Piercer

If I should bow my head let it be to a high mountain.

Maori proverb.

The tallest peak in New Zealand, 349ft), 766 meters (12, at 3, and there is surely no mountain more worthy of being bowed to than Mount Cook.

The grounded canoe became the South Island and Aorangi and his brothers were turned to stone and became the Southern Alps, sailing on the great ocean of Kiwa (the Pacific). By the grounding of the canoe of the ancient Maori explorers, along with the surrounding peaks, it was formed according to their legend, the Cloud Piercer, known to the Maori people as Aorangi.

Followed by the Murchison at 17.7kms, the longest glacier is the Tasman at 28.9 kilometers (18 miles). 000 acres) and boasts the most spectacular peaks and glaciers in the Southern Alps, 000 hectares (170, mount Cook gives its name to a national park of nearly 70.

To the north in Westland National Park and skirted by the Pacific Ocean are the Fox Glacier at 15kms and the Franz Josef at 13.7kms.

Past ice falls and towering ice and snow formations, 12 kilometers (seven miles) of undulating bowls with both easy and demanding slopes, they then explore the longest ski run in the southern hemisphere. 725ft) above sea level, 500 meters (7, 20 minutes land near the Tasman saddle at 2. They fly from the Hermitage airfield at Mount Cook village with their skis strapped to the wing of the aircraft and after 15? On the Tasman for example all skiers are organized in groups of six to nine and are led by a professional guide. These glaciers are the setting of what surely must be the most spectacular skiing in the world.

Who piloted the little Auster Aiglet plane on the inaugural landing on the Tasman Glacier in 1955, the ski-plane's retractable skis were the invention of Harry (later Sir Henry) Wigley.

Brief landings are made on the snowfields at the head of the glaciers, weather permitting, for non-skiers there are scenic flights in ski-planes around Mount Cook and Mount Tasman and.

Sign-posted and guided walks, hiking and easy, rafting on the Tasman River, hunting (outside the park), climbing, mountaineering, other activities offered by the park and surroundings include cross-country skiing.

Hot climb, the tarns can provide a tingling dip after a steep, at the height of summer. Rich gardens of herbs and alpine shrubs ease the sweat of the scramble up and the view from the tarns is ample reward for the effort. Rough trail that climbs 500 meters up the Sealy Range to a group of scenic tarns (small mountain lakes) nestling in alpine meadows about halfway to the crest of the range, this is a steep. An example of a hearty hike close to Mount Cook village is a two-hour trek up to Sealy Tarns.

Tussocked-hills stretching to the Canterbury Plain to the east, with subtropical rain forest meeting the Pacific to the west and the dry, ice-ribboned flank of the Main Divide, between the two stretches the precipitous. Mount Cook lords it over the northern horizon and Mount Sealy dominates the south. Stark mountains encircle the head of the Mueller Glacier. For those with the time and energy to climb above the tarns the rewards are some of the finest views in the park.

Hikers venturing up here should be fit and well equipped with survival gear and protective clothing. These slopes are prone to avalanche and the ridgecrest is exposed and subject to sudden changes in weather.

Draws visitors back to New Zealand like no other attraction, the Cloud Piercer, the grandeur of Mount Cook.

Wrote Lord Byron:

But the hum "High mountains are a feeling,

" Of human cities torture.