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People using the Hooker Valley Track in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park dropped 69 per cent over summer compared with the previous year. (File photo) “Visitor activity at the Hooker Valley Track decreased by 69 per cent over a similar period. Visitor activity at Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier decreased by 67 per cent.” Jones said it was “not possible” to provide the total number of visitors to the national park in 2020, which surpassed 1 million people in 2019. She said this was “due to the impacts of Covid-19 on visitor trends and demographics meaning formulas DOC used previously to calculate numbers are not viable this year”.
New Zealand’s
Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. The country has many popular spots, after all, with Queenstown being on top of the list. Still, there is no doubt though that this park is the most beautiful and awe-inspiring destination on this side of the globe.
Don’t believe us? Read on for our handy guide to this must-visit destination in the
Canterbury region.
Image credit: Krizelle Lacson
Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is home to New Zealand’s highest mountains, longest glaciers, and darkest skies.
Mount Cook, in particular, is the highest mountain in the country, with a recorded height of 3,724 metres or 12,218 feet! It’s also famous for being one of the mountains where Sir Edmund Hillary trained to be the first to climb
“It was probably the most stressful three days of my life,” Napper said. “You didn’t know how long it was going to be for. It could have been a month, or it could have been a year – which it was.”
Tom Napper/Supplied
Napper ended up stranded in New Zealand for a year. But Napper soon realised New Zealand wasn’t the worst place to be stranded during a pandemic. “It was the choice between having a load of green space in Balclutha and being safe from Covid, or going back to a tiny central London flat with my housemates with no outdoor space.”