Tititea/Mount Aspiring National Park Visitor Centre — Attraction in South Island

You will find the Mount Aspiring National Park Visitor Centre along Ardmore Street as you approach the town centre of Wanaka. There is a fair sized carpark or you can just walk there from centre. Its only a few minutes up Ardmore Street. Opening hours are 8.30 to 5pm daily (closed on Sundays).

This is a good place to stop if you are making base in Wanaka and need information on local trail, skiing, road and weather conditions that might impact time you plan to spend in the nearby Mount Aspiring National Park. We found staff eager to interact and answer questions during our visit.

There is a lot of information you can find here on the wide range of hikes available on the region as well as some interesting information regarding historical habitation in the area as well as flora and fauna you might see while here. You'll also find toilets and a typical range of Visitor Centre souvenirs, books and gifts...

With the weather being quite wet and rainy for our few days in Wanaka, it would be best for us to talk to DOC regarding our plans to do a walk in Mt Aspiring National Park. We were helped by Sonya who answered our questions thoroughly (even gave us information about the recent weather forecasts and what we might expect) and gave really great advice regarding how to get to track, and alternatives as well if the weather becomes too wet to access the starting point of the walk.

I found the staff in this DOC office to be really helpful, approachable and very knowledgeable. Definitely pay them a visit before you decide to go on tramps around Tititea/Mt Aspiring National Park - it helps to get some more detailed information from the local DOC staff that the DOC website doesn't...

OMG THE ARCHITECTURE! This building has a DOC info centre. It's great. The displays are great, the service is great, it's great. What you'd expect from one of the most popular National Park DOC centers.

But the building is EXTRAORDINARY. Pristine (original carpet!) 1960/70s alpine architecture, paneling, wood beams, single gazed windows, updated but still in original colors paint work. At first you think "oh, DOC must be underfunded", but then you look again and realise it's all been lovingly cared for and polished. Seriously, you need to go to the basement to the toilets. It's like a time machine to the 70s. I sounds like I'm making fun of them, but omg it was soooo weird and good and one of the highlights...