Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the Canterbury Region in the central-west of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established in October 1953 and takes its name from the highest mountain in New Zealand, Aoraki / Mount Cook. The area of the park is 707 km (273 mi), and it shares a border with Westland Tai Poutini National Park along the Main Divide of the Southern Alps. The national park consists of reserves that were established as early as 1885 to protect the area's significant landscape and vegetation. Glaciers cover 40% of the park, including the country's largest glacier, Haupapa / Tasman Glacier. In 1990, the park was included in the area designated as the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Site. The park is managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) alongside Ngāi Tahu, the iwi who are mana whenua in the region.

At the end of the most recent ice age approximately 13000 years ago, numerous glaciers in the park were tributaries of a much larger glacier covering all of Hooker Valley and Tasman Valley in hundreds of metres of ice. This glacier reached beyond the southern end of today's Lake Pukaki, up to 40 km (25 mi) south of Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park. As it retreated, it filled the hollowed-out valleys, leaving behind the U-shaped valleys seen today in the national park. Early European surveyors and explorers ventured into the alpine region surrounding Aoraki / Mount Cook from the 1850s. Many of the geographical features in the national park were named by or after them. The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act passed in October 1998 recognised the original names of some geographical features, establishing dual English / Māori names.