At 12,349 feet, Aoraki/Mount Cook is New Zealand's tallest mountain. Legend says that a boy named Aoraki and his three brothers were at sea when their canoe overturned on a reef. When the brothers climbed on top of their canoe, freezing wind turned them to stone. The canoe became the South Island and Aoraki and his brothers became the peaks of the mountains.
Aoraki/Mount Cook is where famous New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary trained before he made his historic trek up Mount Everest. (MATTHEW FRY—GETTY IMAGES)