Cecil Peak with its neighbour Walter Peak are two of the most well-known mountains on Lake Whakatipu in Queenstown. While most of Queenstown’s population is settled on the opposite side of the lake, these two mountains provide a spectacular home for high country farming and some tourism operations.

Cecil Peak is unique as it reveals the region’s glacial past. There are large scratches known as striations along the face of the mountain that are a remnant of Lake Whakatipu’s geological formation. Around 12,000 years ago, a huge glacier flowed from the head of the lake, near the Dart and Rees valley. As the glacier moved through the area, it carved out a large trough forming what is now the lake bed. The striations were carved out as the glacier moved past these larger mountains. Smaller mountains don’t have these same scratches, as the glacier simply ran over them.