Rob Roy Glacier, Mt. Aspiring National Park, Southern Alps, New Zealand

The paved road ends

History and Facts:

Mt. Aspiring National Park was established in 1964. It straddles the southern end of the Southern Alps and is peppered with mountains. It is an area of natural beauty and host to hundreds of hiking tracks, rock climbing routes and trout fishing rivers; all within  easy reach of Lake Wanaka. It’s New Zealand’s third largest national park. It’s a wonderful mixture of remote wilderness, towering mountains and beautiful long river valleys. It’s a walker’s paradise and a must for mountaineers. The views are endless and stunning. It offers a large number of short walks and longer hikes too with the option to traverse mountain saddles. This includes the famous Routeburn Track, which I would love to hike someday. The Routeburn track is a 3 day hike. Huts are available for overnight camping. At its heart is Mt. Aspiring, the park’s highest mountain. It is 9,843 feet high.

beautiful long river valleys

Maori, New Zealand indigenous people, were here first, searching for food and pounamu (greenstone or jade). Pounamu was prized for making tools, weapons and ornaments.  “Greenstone trails” along mountain passes are still in use today such as Haast Pass on Highway 6 (the major road between Wanaka and Haast) Later, Europeans farmed the fertile river valleys and mined some areas for minerals. Today this large area is preserved as national park and forms part of the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area--- a global concept that identifies natural and cultural sites of world significance ... places so special that protecting them concerns all people. If you’ve seen any of the Lord of the Rings movies, you have seen parts of Mt. Aspiring National Park. 

...natural and special places need protection

An interesting fact is that New Zealand’s National Parks are free. There are no gates, no entrances and no fees and no Park Rangers to greet you. In Wanaka town, you can go to Mt. Aspiring National Park Visitor’s Center (it is 50 k from the park) where backcountry hiking information, camping information, weather information, etc is available.  We’ve never been there, but one of these rainy days (rain is not in the forecast any time soon) we’ll probably have a look-see. 

On the day of our hike to Rob Roy Glacier, we had to drive 50 kilometres form Wanaka to get to the start of our hiking trail.  30 k was dirt and the rest paved. The dirt road took us by some sheep stations, deer farms and countryside that reminded us of Big Sky Montana. We had to ford several small rivers; most of them dried up due to the lack of rain in the past two months. We were glad to have small streams to ford as our little rental car is very close to the ground. Upon arriving at the “entrance” to the Park and the Rob Roy Track, we parked in the dirt lot, used the restroom and headed up the hillside. 

A bit of the lovely view along the dirt road to our trailhead.

Rivers of Ice info:

At the peak of glaciation, about 20,000 years ago, the Rob Roy Glacier combined with 2 other glaciers and filled this entire valley with rivers of ice. Rob Roy is now an ice age remnant, having retreated. It flows off the south east slopes of Rob Roy Peak and follows the curve of the valley headwalls for about 5 kilometres ( 3 miles). Rob Roy Peak is the fifth highest peak in Mt. Aspiring National Park. There are still over 100 glaciers in Mt. Aspiring National Park, the largest of them flanking Mt. Aspiring which is the highest peak in the park. Our trail did not take us within sight of Mt.Aspiring Peak, but 2 years ago, we were privileged to fly over it and many of the 100 glaciers.  

Well worth the hike up!

...endless and stunning views

Rivers of ice make fantastic waterfalls.

"Blue skies shining on me, nothing but blue skies do I see..."

In 1908, Maude Moreland rode her horse (side-saddle of course) from Wanaka with friends and hiked up to the glacier. Later, in her journal she wrote: “Here we sat and rested while we ate our lunch and feasted our eyes on one of the loveliest and grandest views I shall ever see.”

...remote wilderness

I never pass up a spider web. I love them!

...a walker's paradise

We agree with Maude. 

Enjoy our photos of the lovely and grand sights from our Rob Roy Glacier tramp.

Cheers,

Mary and Bob