Sealy Tarns is a small flat area with two small tarns halfway up the northern slopes of the Sealy Range, New Zealand. It is accessible from the Hooker Valley and

Mount Cook Village Mount Cook Village, officially Aoraki / Mount Cook, is located within New Zealand's Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park at the end of , only south of the summit of the country's highest mountain, also called Aoraki / Mount Cook, in the Souther ...

via a tramping track maintained by the Department of Conservation (DOC). The track climbs steeply from about to via many switchbacks and over 2,200 steps built of large timber anchored into the ground. The track was established during the 1980s, and upgraded in 2012. The distance for a return trek from Hooker Valley Road to Sealy Tarns is 5.8 km (3.6 miles). The Sealy Tarns area marks the end of the well-maintained track, with a popular tramping route that continues to climb to Mueller Hut. The area features two small

tarns A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque (or "corrie") excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. Etymology The word is derived from the Old Norse word ''tjörn'' ("a small mou ...

(hence its name), an area suitable for

tobogganing A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people ( ...

on the side of the ridge, and an excellent view of

The Footstool The Footstool is a mountain in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand. Description The Footstool is situated on the crest or Main Divide of the Southern Alps, and set on the common boundary shared by the Canterbury and West Coast Regions of Sou ...

Aoraki / Mount Cook Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, , is listed as . It is situated in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite ch ...

, both Hooker and

Mueller Glacier The Mueller Glacier is a long glacier flowing through Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. It lies to the west of Mount Cook Village within the Southern Alps, flowing roughly north-west from its névé near M ...

s and their respective

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around t ...

s, and

Panoramic overview

This stitched panorama was taken in the Winter of 2007 in the afternoon. From left-to-right the notable features are: * The route further up the ridge to Mueller Hut * A snow-covered area with toboggan tracks * Two DOC signs indicating the tarns area with the tarns themselves snow-covered in the background *

* In center of frame, top-to-bottom: **

** Terminal face and glacial lake of Hooker Glacier ** Terminal face and glacial lake of the Mueller Glacier (compare to a photo from 2016 to see the retreat of the glacier) * The wide flat-bottomed Hooker Valley (the village itself is hidden behind the ridge on the right)

References

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park Lakes of the Canterbury Region Plateaus of New Zealand Glacial lakes {{CanterburyNZ-geo-stub