Many visitors to Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park stay or dine at the landmark Hermitage Hotel or visit the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre located within it. After lunch with impressive views, amble along Glencoe Walk, which starts behind the hotel and climbs gently to a lookout above it. From here you can admire Aoraki/Mt. Cook as well as the Hooker Glacier. Sunrise and sunset are especially good times to do this walk, as the sun paints the snow-capped mountains pretty colors.

This 1-hour loop walk is a perfect choice for families, the time-pressed, and anyone who doesn’t want to walk too far. The trail leads to a lookout point with good views of Aoraki/Mt. Cook, passes through native bush, and offers the chance to see and hear various birds. It joins with the shortest of the Aoraki/Mt. Cook hiking trails, the 10-minute Bowen Bush Walk. Keep in mind that the Governors Bush Walk includes steps and about a 330-foot elevation incline, so you do need to be quite mobile.

The 2-hour Red Tarns Track is quite steep and gains 985 feet (300 meters) in elevation, so it’s moderately challenging but a good choice if you want to tick off both mountain views and physical exercise. The trail leads up to small mountain lakes (tarns) that have a reddish color because of the pond weed in them. The sunset views from here are especially impressive, but this is an in-and-out trail—so don’t linger too long after the sun goes down or you’ll be walking back in the dark.

You have a couple of options with the Kea Point Track: It’s a 2-hour return walk from Mt. Cook Village, or a 1-hour return walk from the Department of Conservation (DOC) White Horse Hill Campground (the starting point for a few Aoraki/Mt. Cook day hikes). The Kea Point Walk has a gentle incline, meaning it’s not too challenging. Plus, it offers views not just of Aoraki/Mt. Cook but also Mt. Sefton, the Mueller Glacier Lake, the Hooker Valley, and other mountains.

If you want to boost your daily step and floor counts on one hike, the steep 3- to 4-hour Sealy Tarns Track is the one for you. Around 2,200 steps transport you 1,968 feet up to a great lookout over Aoraki/Mt. Cook and the Hooker Valley. If you have ambitions to hike to Mueller Hut, start with the Sealy Tarns Track as it’s the halfway point to the hut anyway—and if you decide you’ve had enough at this point, you’ve already achieved a lot.

You’ll need the better part of a day to complete the Mueller Hut Hike, which can take up to five hours. Or, spread it out over two more leisurely days by staying the night in the hut. The steep trail with around 3,280 feet of elevation gain starts at the Sealy Tarns. In summer (December–February), moderately fit hikers can tackle this trail, but in winter (June–August, although wintery conditions can extend April–October) you’ll need mountaineering experience and specialist snow and ice gear.

The Hooker Valley Track is the most popular hiking trail in the park, and some day trip itineraries give you time to hike this 3- to 4-hour trail independently. It does get busy with day trippers in the middle of the day though, so early morning is an ideal time to visit—in case you needed another reason to stay overnight in Mt. Cook Village. A good alternative route is to take the detour to Hooker Hut: It's more challenging, but it has great views of Mt. Sefton and Tewaewae Glacier.

Mt. Cook Village hikes tend to focus on Mueller or Hooker lakes, but there’s more to explore up the Tasman Valley, northeast of the village. The Tasman Glacier (Haupapa) might not be as famous as its counterparts, Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, but at around 13.5 miles, it’s the country’s longest. The return Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier View Track is quite easy, with a few steps. To get a good sense of the Tasman Glacier’s size and scale, a helicopter sightseeing flight is a wonderful splurge.

Slightly longer than the abovementioned hike, the 1-hour Tasman Glacier Lake Lookout Track branches off the Blue Lakes track and leads you to a viewpoint overlooking this glacial lake dotted with icebergs. You can take another side route that leads to the source of the Tasman River. The Tasman Glacier Lake only started forming in the 1970s but now, with the acceleration of climate change, it’s large enough to take boat and kayaking tours on.