Hiking the New Zealand Alps

When to hike the New Zealand Alps

From December to April, all 7 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. The area is quietest in July, with 2 of 7.

Averaged across the destinations, January is the warmest month at 14 degrees in the hiking window and July the coldest at 2. Every destination here is in the southern hemisphere.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 330 metres at Abel Tasman to 1,450 metres at Aoraki / Mount Cook, with a median of 901 metres. Abel Tasman clears the criteria in 12 months (all year), Aoraki / Mount Cook in 5 months (from December to April).

The longest season belongs to Abel Tasman and Paparoa, at 12 months each; the shortest to Aoraki / Mount Cook, at 5 months (from December to April).

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is snow cover for 5 of the 7 destinations. 2 are recommendable in all twelve months.

In July, the quietest month, 5 of 7 destinations are closed, all of them by snow cover.

Conditions in February

February is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 11 degrees at Aoraki / Mount Cook to 17 at Abel Tasman, and rain falls on 34 to 52 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 7 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.