Maunga

List of mountains of New Zealand by height

List of mountains of New Zealand by height

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The following are lists of mountains in New Zealand[lower-alpha 1] ordered by height. Names, heights, topographic prominence and isolation, and coordinates were extracted from the official Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Topo50 topographic maps at the interactive topographic map of New Zealand site.

Aoraki / Mount Cook, located in New Zealand's South Island, is the highest point in the country

Mountains are referred to as maunga in the Māori language.

Named summits over 2,900 m

All summits over 2,900 metres (9,500 ft) are within the Southern Alps, a chain that forms the backbone of the South Island, and all but one (Mount Aspiring / Tititea) are within a 10-mile (16 km) radius of Aoraki / Mount Cook. Some of these summits are mere shoulders on the ridges of Aoraki and Mount Tasman.

Gordon Hasell was the first person who, by 1960, had climbed all New Zealand's peaks above 10,000 feet. The achievement mentions 27 peaks and is thus counts individual peaks that may make up one mountain, e.g. Mount Haast has three individual peaks that are all above that height.[1][2]

More information Rank, Summit ...

The 100 highest mountains

These are all the mountains over 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) with a topographic prominence (drop) of at least 300 metres (980 ft), closely matching those on the list of mountains of New Zealand by the New Zealand Alpine Club. Five peaks overlooked on that list are indicated with an asterisk. Of these 100 mountains, all but two — Ruapehu (Tahurangi Peak) (19th highest) and Mount Taranaki (65th highest) — are in the South Island. Tapuae-o-Uenuku, in the Kaikōura Ranges, is the highest peak outside the Southern Alps.

More information Rank, Mountain ...

Other notable mountains and hills

Over 2,000 metres

  • Te Heuheu2,732 m (8,963 ft)- highest peak in the north of the crater rim of Mount Ruapehu
  • Mount Strauchon2,391 m (7,844 ft)
  • Mount Bonpland2,343 m (7,687 ft)
  • Turner Peak – 2,341 m (7,680 ft)
  • Mount Franklin (Tasman)2,340 m (7,677 ft)
  • Mount Travers2,338 m (7,671 ft)
  • Mount Taylor2,333 m (7,654 ft)[5]
  • Double Cone2,319 m (7,608 ft)[5]
  • Mount Tūwhakarōria2,307 m (7,569 ft)
  • Somnus2,293 m (7,523 ft)
  • Mount Ngauruhoe2,287 m (7,503 ft)
  • Mount Hopeless2,278 m (7,474 ft)
  • Mount Rolleston2,275 m (7,464 ft)
  • Mount Aurum2,245 m (7,365 ft)
  • Faerie Queen2,236 m (7,336 ft)
  • Mount Paske2,216 m (7,270 ft)
  • Mount Adams2,208 m (7,244 ft)
  • Mount Awful2,192 m (7,192 ft)
  • Mount Hutt2,185 m (7,169 ft)
  • Mount Franklin (Canterbury)2,145 m (7,037 ft)
  • Mount Cloudsley2,107 m (6,913 ft)
  • Mount Olympus2,094 m (6,870 ft)
  • Dobson Peak2,095 m (6,873 ft)
  • David Peaks2,093 m (6,867 ft)
  • Mount Macfarlane2,077 m (6,814 ft)
  • Tooth Peak2,061 m (6,762 ft)
  • Mount Damfool2,030 m (6,660 ft)
  • Mount Dreadful2,030 m (6,660 ft)
  • Jane Peak2,022 m (6,634 ft)

1,000 to 2,000 metres

Under 1,000 metres

Historical perspective

Prior to the introduction of the metric system in New Zealand, the mountains regarded as tall were those over 10,000 ft (3,000 m). Lists of mountains or peaks by height have over the decades been published by the New Zealand government in its official yearbook. The 1920–21 edition was the first to contain a list of mountains and it had six of them at over 10,000 feet.[lower-alpha 10][9]

More information Mountain, height (ft) ...

This table remained the same in the two subsequent editions until 1924, when the secretary of the New Zealand Alpine Club had provided a fuller list of 16 mountains:[10]

More information Mountain, height (ft) ...

In the 1931 yearbook, Torres Peak was added to that list.[11] Andy Anderson was the first to climb all 17 mountains by late December 1950.[12][13]

The 1931 list remained unchanged until the late 1950s, and was used as the starting point by mountaineer Gordon Hasell (1933–2018) to compile an amended list. Not all the mountains had been officially surveyed and Hasell added 12 new ones to the list that he considered likely to also reach the 10,000 feet mark and deleted 2 (De la Beche and The Minarets), making a total of 27 peaks. This list was published in the 1957 edition of the New Zealand Alpine Journal and stood for the next 25 years. It is shown here as published in geographical order from north-east to south-west.[12][14][15]

More information Peak, height as published (ft) ...

Footnotes

  1. These lists exclude mountains in the Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by and administered by New Zealand, though could include the similarly claimed and administered Balleny Islands. These claims are in abeyance, in accord with the Antarctic Treaty. If mountains in the Ross Dependency were included in this list, several notable peaks would appear in the upper part of this list, including Mount Erebus which, at 3,795 metres (12,451 ft), would outrank Aoraki / Mount Cook, and the Admiralty Mountains of Victoria Land.
  2. In the absence of a height for the key col, the prominence is estimated from contour lines and presented in italics.
  3. The high peak of Aoraki was 3,764 m or 12,349 ft high until 14 December 1991, when a massive rock/ice collapse broke off 10 m (33 ft). Subsequent erosion of the exposed ice cap reduced its height by a further 30 m (98 ft) as of November 2013.[3]
  4. First ascent dates and parties were mostly extracted from the National Route database at Climb NZ.[4]
  5. Highest peak outside the Southern Alps
  6. In the Inland Kaikōura Range
  7. Highest peak on the North Island
  8. Brodrick Peak and Mount Mannering are equally high summits separated by the 2,400 m Whataroa Saddle (269 m drop)
  9. An unnamed point to the southwest of Maungatere Hill rises to 299 m (981 ft).
  10. The 1920 edition does not contain a list of mountains.[8]
  11. In subsequent lists, Saint David's Dome is referred to as Mount Hicks

References

  1. "Four ascents of Mt. Cook". The Press. Vol. XCIX, no. 29099. 11 January 1960. p. 11. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  2. "Gordon Hasell". Timaru District Council. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
  3. "Otago-led study revises height of Aoraki/Mt Cook". University of Otago. 16 January 2014. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  4. "NZ". ClimbNZ. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  5. "Oceania P5000s". Peaklist.org. Retrieved 8 February 2008.
  6. Brown Peak, Composite Gazeetter of Antarctica, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. US source.
  7. Brown Peak, Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. NZ source.
  8. Fraser, Malcolm (25 February 1921). The New Zealand official year-book, 1920 (1920 ed.). Census and Statistics Office.
  9. Fraser, Malcolm (1 March 1922). The New Zealand official year-book, 1921–22 (1921–22 ed.). Census and Statistics Office.
  10. Fraser, Malcolm (15 December 1923). The New Zealand official year-book, 1924 (1924 ed.). Census and Statistics Office.
  11. Fraser, Malcolm (15 December 1930). The New Zealand official year-book, 1931 (1931 ed.). Census and Statistics Office.
  12. "Defining the highest mountains in New Zealand". Seeking The Light. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  13. "World climbing record". The Press. Vol. LXXXVI, no. 26309. 2 January 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 16 June 2023.
  14. Wood, George (20 June 1957). The New Zealand official year-book, 1957 (1957 ed.). Department of Statistics.
  15. "The Ten Thousand Foot Peaks". New Zealand Alpine Journal. 44: 72–73. Retrieved 16 June 2023.

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