The name of New Zealands highest mountain is Aorangi, or Aoraki, which means Cloud Piercer in the Ngāi Tahu dialect of the Māori language. It was named Mt Cook by Captain John Lort Stokes in honour of James Cook, who was the first European to circumnavigate New Zealand in 1770, though he did not sight the mountain.The elevation of Aoraki Mt Cook is 3,754 metres. The mountain permanently lost ten metres from its height on 14 December 1991 when 10 million cubic metres of rock and ice fell off the northern peak.The mountain is located in the Southern Alps on the South Island, within the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park which was formally declared in 1953.The tallest mountain on the North Island is Mt Ruapehu.Aoraki/Mount Cook - 3,754 metres (12,316 ft)Mount Tasman - 3,497 metres (11,473 ft)Mount Dampier - 3,440 metres (11,290 ft)As an aside, Mount Cook served as a practice mountain for Sir Edmund Hillary in the 1940s in preparation for his Mount Everest feat. As of 2017, 200 climbers have died trying to climb Mount Cook.
