Rob Roy Track

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New years day. To celebrate the New Year and recover from hangovers we went on a walk. Laura, Clare and I went walking; Phil went to celebrate the English New Years with a pint at 12pm.

The Rob Roy Track in Mount Aspiring National Park, is one of the most wonderful places I have been. The steep, interesting 2hr climb to the tree line through native woodland along the valley of the Rob Roy Stream is so beuatiful. The hangover left after only a few moments. At certain points a view of sky, mountain peaks, glaciers just below, waterfalls dropping thousands of feet down sheer valley walls onto lush green grassland and forest and the bubbling rapids of the Rob Roy Stream are all visible in one view.

At the top of the walk at the tree line one of New Zealand’s cheeky native parrots, the Kea, gather. They hope to be fed or steal food from tourists. Feeding of the Keas is not permitted as they should be foraging and filling their role in the ecosystem. The Keas don’t know about this and have learnt to open backpacks, cars and just generally be cheeky in hopes of getting fed the easy way.

The views of the glaciers and waterfalls at the top were so breath taking I easily spent an hour there just sitting and listening to the cracking ice in the distance, watching the Keas’ antics and photographing, wishing that my camera was better.

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Comments

[Bernard]

Rob Roy Track (Wanaka)
Hi, Next february, I'll go in NZ with my wife. We want to hike and Rob Roy Track is a possibility. I want to know where is exactly the departure. It seams a gravel road, is it possible to drive there without a 4WD car ? Thank you for your response. Bernard

[Ali]

Hi Bernard
Yes - the road is gravel but like many in NZ, accessible by standard cars. Can't help more than that as hiked there 8 years ago now...