Private Aoraki Mount Cook Tour from Queenstown

The roof of the country, and the lakes that lead to it.

Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, at the centre of a national park of glaciers, alpine lakes and the clearest night skies in the world. To Ngai Tahu, Aoraki is an ancestor, turned to stone with his brothers to raise the highest peaks of the island, and the mountain carries that weight of story still.

The day runs north from Queenstown through the Kawarau Gorge, pausing at Cromwell's restored heritage precinct on the lake edge, then climbs the Lindis Pass into the vast, golden Mackenzie Country, a high country of braided rivers and merino stations. Beyond Omarama we call at a working salmon farm on the canals south of Twizel to collect the day's lunch, straight from the water it was raised in.

Lake Pukaki stops you in your tracks, the glacier-fed water an impossible shade of turquoise, with Aoraki framed perfectly at the head of the lake. Your guide pulls over for photos and shares the mountain's story, before the road follows the lake's full length into the national park.

Included in your tour

• Private luxury vehicle and dedicated driver-guide
• Door-to-door hotel pick-up and return
• Guided walk to the Tasman Glacier viewpoint and the Blue Lakes
• A picnic style platter lunch, served in the national park
• Bottled water and all park entry

Not included: Optional scenic flights and glacier add-ons (arranged on request); drinks beyond lunch.

Optional upgrades

• A ski-plane flight with a mountain landing, about twenty-five minutes.
• A scenic flight with a glacier landing, about forty-five minutes.
• The Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre, with its museum and theatre.