Looking for mountains to climb in New Zealand

Hi! I’m moving to New Zealand in a couple of weeks and will be based near Timaru on the South Island. I’m looking for recommendations for hills and mountains to go up. I’m used to Scottish mountaineering, so something along those lines would be ideal. I’ve got some alpine experience but am a bit rusty, so for now, I’m after routes that aren’t too technical (though I’d love to hear about any epic goals to work toward in the future).

Any suggestions for good routes or guidebooks? Also, does anyone know of any particularly active mountaineering clubs? 

The NZ alpine club publishes a fine series of guidebooks broken down by region & activity:

https://alpineclub.org.nz/products/category/mountaineering/category/north-island/category/rock-climbing/category/south-island

Kia ora!

If you’re looking to connect with other climbers and you’ll be based in Timaru, the NZAC South Canterbury section is an obvious place to start: https://alpineclub.org.nz/region/south-canterbury

The Alpine Club regularly runs events and coordinates trips, as you can see from their page. The closest good mountains to Timaru are in Aoraki Mt Cook National Park and the Ben Ōhau range, but there are heaps of other areas within a few hours’ drive, including Arthur’s Pass and places further afield like Aspiring NP and the Darrans in Fiordland. You could also check out the NZAC Canterbury-Westland section (based in Christchurch), or the Canterbury Mountaineering Club.

You may be interested in the backcountry rock climbing at Mt Somers, which is fairly close to Timaru. The best online source of beta for mountains is climbnz.org.nz, and thecrag.com is also useful for rock climbing.

Nau mae, haere mai!

Mt Cook

interested in maybe doing a trip out there! hit me up if you're looking for partners 7343098631