Mount Aspiring National Park

Mount Aspiring National Park covers more than 3,500 square kilometres of the southern end of the Southern Alps, a wilderness of ice-capped peaks, hanging glaciers, deep U-shaped valleys and beech forest that stretches from the head of Lake Wānaka toward Fiordland. At its centre rises Mount Aspiring, known in Māori as Tititea, the glistening peak: a sharp, pyramid-shaped summit of 3,033 metres, the highest mountain in New Zealand outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook area. The surveyor John Turnbull Thomson gave it its English name in 1857, and Major Bernard Head reached the top with two guides in 1909.

The landscape was shaped by ice. More than a hundred glaciers still cling to the ranges, and the broad, flat-floored valleys of the Matukituki, Dart, Rees and Wilkin rivers were scoured by much larger glaciers during the last ice age. Waterfalls spill from the valley walls, braided rivers spread across the valley floors, and above the bushline lie alpine meadows and tussock. Kea, the inquisitive mountain parrot of the South Island, are often seen around the huts and passes.

The park was created in 1964 as New Zealand's tenth national park, and is often called one of its least developed. Since 1990 it has formed part of Te Wāhipounamu – South West New Zealand, the World Heritage Area that also includes Fiordland, Aoraki/Mount Cook and Westland Tai Poutini national parks. The Haast Pass highway, one of the few roads across the Southern Alps, cuts through its north-eastern corner, and famous tramping routes such as the Routeburn Track, the Rees–Dart circuit and the Cascade Saddle track cross its valleys and passes.

Getting there

The town of Wānaka, on Lake Wānaka, is the usual base for the park; the Matukituki valley road runs from there into its eastern side. Wanaka Airport (WKA) is about 56 km away, while Queenstown Airport (ZQN), with more connections, serves the southern approaches via Glenorchy. The Haast Pass road (State Highway 6) crosses the north-eastern part of the park.