From mountain, to river, to lake, from the extreme, to the tranquil, this stunning scenic area is as diverse as it is expansive. So no matter what your reason for travel, the Aoraki Mount Cook Mackenzie region truly has something to offer you.
The area now known as the Mackenzie Country was formed about two million years ago by the grinding action of glaciers advancing and retreating, creating an enormous wide open plain, framed by majestic snow capped mountains.
The lakes of Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau were created by the receding glaciers around 200,000 years ago, and get their distinctive turquoise blue colour from particles of 'rock flour' and 'glacier dust' reflecting in the sunlight. Weather patterns including heavy rainfall, ice, and snow coverage were also factors in creating this marvellous wide open palette of light and colour.
Not only is the Mackenzie Country located in the middle of New Zealand's South Island, it is also 'middle earth' country, where the great battle scene of Pelennor Fields in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed.
The Aoraki Mount Cook National Park spans 70,696 hectares of bush, river, mountain and glacier. It is home to New Zealand's highest mountain - Mount Cook - at 3,764m above sea level, with the surrounding Southern Alps comprising of 27 other peaks over 3000m, plus hundreds of others standing not too far short. Prior to 1991, Mount Cook stood ten metres higher, but a major avalanche and rockslide containing some 10 million tones of snow, ice and rock removed the original summit, changing the Mount Cook landscape for ever.
The second highest mountain in the chain is Mount Tasman, home of the Tasman Glacier. The Tasman is one of five major glaciers in the area, and at 27 kms long is the largest glacier in the world outside of the Polar Regions and the Himalayas. In places it is 3kms wide, and up to 2.5kms thick.