Rob Roy Glacier

Three hours return
A superb excursion from Wanaka

Perhaps the most accessible, rugged mountain walk you can make. On this walk you experience high country farmland, alpine meadows, snowfields and a boulder strewn river cascading through beech forest. You can spend your lunch break watching the avalanches topple off the Rob Roy Glacier.

In winter and spring, enquire at the Visitor Centre about avalanche danger on the track.

From Raspberry Creek, walk up the main track for about 15 minutes until you reach the swing bridge across the Matukituki River. Cross the bridge and follow the track up a small gorge into the beech forest; the well-formed track climbs up alongside a mountain stream part of the way.

When you emerge from the bush, there’s a short walk through alpine vegetation to a spectacular view of the glacier.

Chances are there will be piercing blue skies overhead when you plunge into the spectacular alpine scenery of Central Otago.

Winters as well as summers in “Central” – as locals will tell you - deliver brilliant sunshine. But winter’s crackling cold may persuade you to wait for milder weather do the Rob Roy Glacier walk in Mt Aspiring National Park.

The exhilarating but not strenuous hike is a half-day excursion, although the drama of the glacier compels many to make a day of it.

From Wanaka, drive for about an hour out round the south western shore of the lake, past Treble Cone Mountain, until you arrive at Matukituki Valley and the Raspberry Flats car park beside the river. The view follows the river up a magnificent valley to where the mountains reach for the sky. Even during the warmer months, snow dusts their peaks. Take a picnic lunch in your day pack and prepare for a walk of between one-and-a-half and two hours. A swing bridge across the river leads straight to the track through native forest.

Near the top the trees give way to alpine shrubs and flowers and you come face to face with the mighty Rob Roy Glacier. You can spread the picnic at the foot of the glacier you and admire the extraordinary surrounds.

Almost for sure, your attention will be diverted by a member of New Zealand’s most audacious bird species. The parrot-like keas are at home in the South Island high country. And hikers who enter their patch must literally hang on to their hats – or see them disappear into the ether, courtesy of a kea.

Sometimes the air is broken by the sound of distant thunder beyond the icy wall above. An avalanche gathers speed and crashes down the precipitous walls of ice and snow like a waterfall. At such close quarters it is an awesome sight.

There is a magnificent waterfall across from the viewpoint where you can cool off in the spray generated by the 150-metre fall. You could proceed for another ninety minutes to arrive directly under the glaciers but the track peters out at the viewpoint. The valley and the glacier descend the steep mountainside from more than 2000 metres.

As well as the cheeky kea you may spot wood pigeons, gray warblers and bell birds. And deer are agile inhabitants of alpine New Zealand.

The Rob Roy Glacier walk covers a distance of ten kilometres each way. It can easily be done without a guide but guided walks are available.

Weather conditions may change rapidly.

Take warm, wet weather gear, sound footwear and extra food in case of emergencies. A clear knowledge of your route and an appropriate map are advised.

Image Credits: Will Turner