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Mount Cook - Aoraki
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At 3,764 metres Mt Cook is New
Zealand's highest point, and Mt Cook National Park is the high point for
many visitors - some 200,000 per year. It was given its European name in
1851 in honour of the explorer Captain James Cook. The 70,000 hectare
National Park contains nearly all of New Zealand's major peaks and was
accorded World Heritage status in 1986. |
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The first attempt to climb Mt
Cook was made in 1882 but it was another 12 years before New Zealanders Tom
Fyfe, Jack Clarke and George Graham reached the top on Christmas day, 1894.
Many of New Zealand's top mountaineers, including Sir Edmund Hillary, began
their climb to fame on Mt Cook. |
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Mountaineers and sightseers have
always been drawn to the Alps. The first Hermitage, built of cob in 1886,
was soon visited by a regular horse-drawn coach service from Fairlie which
was replaced in 1906 by a nine-seater Darracq car. A more palatial Hermitage
was built in 1914. It burned down in 1957, but was quickly replaced by the
nucleus of today's Hermitage.
The many alpine walks in Mt Cook National Park provide a wealth of flora and
fauna sightseeing. There are a variety of flowering plants, (including the
Mt Cook Lily - the world's largest buttercup), unique alpine insects and
numerous birds. The world's only mountain parrot, the Kea, lives here but
watch out, it is a bold pirate of high intelligence. Hunting is permitted in
the Park - mainly for Himalayan Tahr and European Chamois. |
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