BEST COOKER

Circa Jan 2003. Taken with my Nikon F80 SLR and scanned 2010.

Mount Aspiring is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region. Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres (9,950 feet). Maori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Dart River.

Mt. Aspiring sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka. It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.

I was enroute from Wanaka to Milford Sound courtesy of Aspiring Air, the local air charter company who operate several flights daily across the Southern Alps carrying tourist and supplies to Milford Sound. The flight from Wanaka takes just under an hour and passes over some spectacular scenery, culminating in the 'final approach' down Milford Sound itself. We were flying at approx 9,000ft, but Aspiring was almost another 1,000ft higher. Seen here approaching from the East the flight took us slightly to the south of the main peak. See the next shot.

Taken from the view of views platform on the walk around Lake Matheson. Mount Cook and Mount Tasman can be seen in the distance. The wind started to get a bit strong and the reflection of the mirror lake was disturbed. We got up a bit late and regretted missing it as a perfect mirror. We will just have to go back again. Mount Cook is 3755m high and is New Zealands tallest peak, it is also known by is maori name of Aoraki, it is also the tallest peak in Australasia. Mt Cook was named after James Cook by Captain Stokes of the survey ship HMS Acheron. Mount Tasman is 3498m high and is located in Mount Cook national park. Of the 27 mountains in NZ, 22 are in this park.
I have kept the processing to a minimium, as the scenery can more than speak for itself.

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