Mountaineering

New Zealand’s southern island offers many opportunities for mountaineering. Examples are Mt. Cook (Canterbury), Kaikoura Ranges (Canterbury), Nelson Lakes peaks (Marlborough & Nelson), Mt. Aspiring (Otago & Southland) and Fiordland (Otago & Southland).

Inexperienced should not start a mountaineering trip without guidance. It can be extremely dangerous in the mountains, due to the possibility of a 180 degrees weather change in an eyewink. The December 2003 deaths on Mt. Cook (Canterbury) and Mt. Tasman (Canterbury) illustrate this.

New Zealand has an alpine club: The New Zealand Alpine Club. It is based in Christchurch, their web address is: http://www.alpineclub.org.nz.

If you would like to enhance your mountaineering skills or like to make a one time climb, you can for example go to the following places: Mt. Cook (Canterbury) and Fox Glacier (Westcoast). In these places you will find some companies being able to guide and or teach you. For additional information about this topic and for finding mountain clubs in New Zealand the following link is useful: http://www.fmc.org.nz.