The nucleus of the park was set aside as a recreation reserve in 1887, but it was not until 1953 that it became a National Park. In 1987 together with the Westland National Park, Aoraki Mount Cook National Park was deemed a World Heritage Park. The park now occupies 70,011 hectares (over 270 square miles) and contains 158 named peaks, which range in height from Mt Sebastopol at 1468 metres to Aoraki Mount Cook at 3754 metres, the highest peak in Australasia. Altogether the region boasts more than 140 peaks over 2000m (6500 ft) and contains all but five of the 27 peaks over 3000m (10,000ft) in New Zealand. The erosive forces of snow, ice and climatic extremes play a major force in shaping the horizon - in December 1991, 300 cubic meters of rock avalanched off Aoraki Mount Cook, reducing it’s height by 10 metres.
40% of the park’s area is made up of glaciers, of which 72 are named. There are five major valley glaciers: Godley, Murchison, Tasman, Hooker and Mueller. The Tasman Glacier, visible from the main highway at the entrance to the park is 27km long and up to 3km wide, with its ice extending about 600 metres (2,000ft) deep in places. The Tasman Glacier is the longest glacier in the Southern Hemisphere, but has retreated rapidly over the past 100 years along with other glaciers in the park. Where the end of the glacier stood 50 years is now a large terminal lake, in which you can often witness floating icebergs.
Among this remote landscape and hostile environment thrives an abundance of native flora and fauna, including species unique to the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. Over 750 different Native flowering plants live in the park, mainly found in the alpine shrublands and tussock grasslands. The most popular of these are the many varieties of mountain buttercup (Ranunculus) and daisy (Celmisia). The famed Mount Cook Lily, Ranunculus lyallii is the largest buttercup in the world. Only small patches of silver beech forest remain after early burn-offs by settlers.
About 40 species of birds are found in the park. The most distinctive is the kea, a mountain parrot well known for its mischievous antics. The only permanent alpine bird is the tiny rock wren, which survives the winters in high rocky basins. Sometimes keas, falcons and black-backed gulls can be found soaring in the higher areas. In the braided Tasman River bed adjacent to the park, the endangered black stilt is staging a comeback. The park is also rich in invertebrate fauna, including large dragonflies, grasshoppers, distinctive moths and butterflies. Sand-flies abound and a black alpine weta known as the Mount Cook flea is found above the snowline.
