5 reasons why Mount Cook is a must visit in New Zealand

Quick Summary: Mount Cook is an extremely beautiful and pleasant place for you to spend a couple of nights here. Get yourself involved in experential activities such as hiking through a valley, watching the stars and many more. Lastly, enjoy an incredible drive to Mount Cook village while keeping the cost low for your budget.

Quick intro of Mount Cook

Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand and a very popular destination for all types of travellers. Located in the Canterbury region, Mount Cook National Park was formed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.

At the base of it, Mount Cook Village serves as the base camp as well as the tourist centre for all visitors. It is here, that most of our adventures begin.

In today’s note, I will share with you 5 different reasons why Mount Cook is a must visit for you or your group, if you’re heading to New Zealand soon. Or if you’re planning for one, do yourself a favour by including this location into your itinerary.

And if you have not been to Mount Cook yet, well, I hope this note will help serve as a motivation for you to get all excited in visiting this wonderful location.

It’s a freaking amazing place to see, do and enjoy your time in New Zealand. And you will want to visit it again the next time.

Interested to see all the images taken by me that are related to Mount Cook? Download my handcrafted Signature Album “The Remarkable Mountains of Mount Cook” to enjoy the images!

1. Dark Sky Reserves for stargazing

Wait… What’s a dark sky reserve? I mean you said stargazing, yeah, but… you know.

As a matter of fact, I felt it’s important to help speak more of the Dark Sky Reserve in New Zealand.

There are 53 Dark Sky Parks – yes, not typo. Parks and reserves are different! – and only 11 Dark Sky Reserves in the world. And the core different between a park and a reserve is, obviously, the size requirement for it.

And New Zealand has the world’s largest Dark Sky Reserve! 

How impressive is that huh?!

Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve is what I’m talking about. In such a reserve, very little artificial light pollution exist and pretty much restricted as well.

And what that means is, during night time you get to see one of the best view littered with millions of stars, the ever magnificent Milky Way and potentially shooting stars as well!

Best yet, seeing stars and Milky Way doesn’t depend on luck and chance like Northern Lights do!

Tip: That being said, Milky Way does have “season” timing too. So make sure you check that out before bring your hopes too high!

So yes, by visiting Mount Cook you’re essentially in the Dark Sky Reserve and there’re tours in the village that you can arrange to do some stargazing.

I’ve done that and I must say that it’s quite an eye-opening session!

You get to see stars in our solar system that’s actually visible to our eyes, though faint but often overlooked, in the sky.

Tip: It gets really cold (depending on when you go) at night and the area is very open. So wind coming from all angles is very possible. However, worry not! The tour provides very warm coveralls for all. Just thought I should highlight this so it’s not a surprise for you.

2. Excellent hiking location for all ages

Besides being the best location for stargazing at night, in the morning you get to do one of the best hiking trails in New Zealand to start the day.

Oh, you’re so going to enjoy the trail with plenty to see!

Hooker Valley trail is one of the most popular hiking destination and it’s approximately 5km long.

Although I would consider the trail to be fairly easy enough for all ages, it should still prove some challenges for starters or refreshing for those who hikes often.

Tip: Know that there’s a fair bit of climbing stairs or coming down from one. So if you’ve problems doing that, just take it easy and slow.

It’s a great outdoor activity for the family, to get out there do some exercises and let the kids enjoy those nature. Regardless, I don’t think anyone should miss out this fantastic opportunity as it’s totally worth it!

Most of us do need to stop staring at the mobile all day long!

Places like this spark inspiration, creativity and a whole bunch of health-inducing-energy. So as much as we can, we should get out there and explore to our hearts content.

3. A view of the world at Tasman Viewpoint

There are plenty of viewpoints across New Zealand that presents various dramatic landscapes. But one of the most satisfying experience I’ve had, would be at the Tasman viewpoint.

This place offers amazing landscape scene that’s just simply unbeatable. But to get to this viewpoint, you may have to do a little exercise first – you’ll have to climb a steep and long flight of stairs up.

But once you get there, every parts of aching and tiredness instantly melts away by the view in front of you. And more importantly, it may also make you think twice about where we’re heading in terms of global warming.

At this point, I felt the need to share a little insight on this, because I sincerely felt the sadness when I see it with my own eyes.

Tasman glacier is melting faster than ever before, and is estimated to disappear in the next 20 years or so.

It may seem like a distant away, but it’s not all that long from now. What would our next generation get to see then?

The loss of Tasman Glacier will and has already created a huge impact on many things. From safety to tourism to rising lake levels, these are just some of the consequences that we’re facing.

In particular, heli tours had all stopped (as far as I’m aware) and most tours are not allowed to get too close to the glaciers as well. And what that means for us, locals and foreigners alike, is that this incredibly beautiful piece of nature’s work is now no longer accessible.

So for the most part, we can all only enjoy its beauty from afar. And as time goes by, we will lose its glory as it retreats further.

So, given any chances, I strongly recommend anyone to drop by this place, climb those stairs and just chill out at the top enjoying this magnificent view before it’s too late.

4. A truly marvellous drive to Mount Cook

No better words can express the beauty that unfolds itself before your eyes. Maybe, I should just show you one of the images I manage to take while driving there.

Ok, maybe that wasn’t the best shot and probably didn’t express its best. How about some community images taken by others?

The drive to Mount Cook is also one of the most popular scenic drive that roadtrippers will take when visiting New Zealand.

While it’s probably the only best route to take to reach Mount Cook Village, Mount Cook itself also carries a huge influence in shaping one’s itinerary.

It only just makes it even better when it’s so pleasantly enjoyable from start to the end.

5. Last but not least, it’s not all that expensive

But what makes a place from better to best? When it’s cheap and accessible. Of course, those aren’t the only factors determining it, but nowadays most of us are a lot more sensible towards our spending.

Adding one of this place in your itinerary almost seems brainless. If you need help planning or creating an itinerary, comment below or drop me an email!

So, let’s do a little math here to quench your curiosity and clear your doubts. Say, we’re going to spend approximately 4D3Ns here and planning on doing some of those activities mentioned above.

Here’s a quick itinerary for you:

Day 1

• Make a couple of stops along the drive to Mt Cook (photos time!)
• Check in, rest from driving fatigue
• treat yourself and partner to a tasty dinner @

Day 2

• Early morning hiking at Hooker Valley trail
• At night, stargazing

Day 3

• Join the Galcier Explorers team to explore Tasman Glacier
• Climb up the stairs to Tasman Viewpoint
• Catch the sunset at the starting leg of the trail

Day 4

• Check out Mount Cook Village
• Drive off to the next location (Don’t leave too late as you need 2-3 hours driving)

The above plan shouldn’t be too far off I think. The only changing factor is the connecting places where you came from and where you’re heading to next.

It matters because of the driving duration and departing time mostly. I personally think 10am is quite a good timing to depart because you have plenty of morning time for a good breakfast and weather is just right for anything really.

Tip: Don’t forget, you will make frequent stops during your drive which adds to the time too! Say, you need 3 hours driving from where you came, chances are you might arrive after 1pm if you leave latest 10am. And if where you’re heading next requires another 3 hours driving, then you can’t leave too late without losing most of the lights and adding on too much fatigue. You get the drift…

So what’s the cost looking like then? Let’s see the breakdown below with the lower and upper range.

Tip: Please bear in mind that the above are just estimation. In many cases, prices differ between seasons. Expenses such as restaurants and activities, are highly subjective to individuals. Please do your due diligence here.

It’s not that crazy, although it might end up being the bulk of your trip’s cost. If you have that many activities packed into one location, I wouldn’t be surprised.

The lower range looks at normal sedan car and staying at Alpine lodge for a comfortable sleep. The upper range, however, looks at a more decent car and staying over at Mt Cook Hermitage.

It’s actually really nice that in such a small village, they try to accommodate travellers with different budgets.

I personally would’ve gone with the lower range, because I did that before. It’s really comfortable enough and even for my wife, she didn’t have much complain too. I’m certainly happy that I went with that decision!

What do you think? Are those reasons above good enough for you to visit Mount Cook in your next New Zealand trip? Or do you think you need more? Share your thoughts and comments below!

Quick Mention – My NZ Photo Album

Like what you see for those images? All the above are taken by myself while on the trip (except for the google image search screenshot) and they are as authentic as they could be.

If you would like to know about these images that I’ve taken, head over to my note on creating this Photo Album. Let me know what you think by posting your thoughts and comments in that note!

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