Mt Cook Photos


Mount Cook, also known as Aoraki, which means "cloud scraper" in the Maori language, is too challenging to hike, but there are some good hikes surrounding it. Living up to its name, its peak is usually obscure by clouds. At its foot is the Tasman Glacier, the largest glacier in the country, but also known as the ugliest due to the large amount of rock that has become dislodged from the mountains that surround it and covered its beautiful ice. I was still nursing my sprained foot from Te Anau, so I couldn't do the full hike to a hut on the neighboring mountain that I wanted, but I did some shorter hikes and saw nearly the same views as from the hut. On one hike, which headed up towards the hut, the weather changed quickly after I ascended and it began snowing horizontally. The clouds fogged in the view a bit, but it was a fun experience to be in the storm.