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Published: August 9th 2007
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Matukituki valley swing bridge
In the gaze of Mt. Aspiring, the walk up to the swing bridge which marks the begining of the Rob Roy Valley track Wow! I would even make the controversial statement that Mt. Aspiring is my personal favourite National Park. Yes, even more than Abel Tasman or even Fiordland and Aoraki / Mt. Cook National Park (as I write this with hindsight of the latter two). But before I go on to rave about this park and the fabulous Rob Roy Valley track, a little word on Wanaka itself.
Wanaka We had never set out to stay in Wanaka, but talking to some fellow travellers at Abel Tasman was enough to persuade us to stay here as the gateway to Mt. Aspiring National Park. They spoke of a fantastic walk in the shadow of snow capped mountains and a 51km drive up a gravel road and over fords! Sounded like an adventure to me, so we stole 1 night from Queenstown to stay in Wanaka.
Arriving from eventually seeing Mount Cook from Lake Matheson (Blog:
Fox Glacier & Lake Matheson) and yet another stunningly scenic drive, we drove into a charming little town, set on the shores of the enormous and beautiful lake Wanaka. The drive itself to get to Wanaka from glacier country is very dramatic and takes in other impressive lakes. Our bed for
Getting close to the top
The Rob Roy Valley Track the night, the Purple Cow backpackers in Wanaka was excellent and had great views out towards the lake. I sought some advice from the Brit owner on the road through Mt. Aspiring National Park. She said "Well, I've taken my campervan up there. As long as you slow down, should be fine". That was enough for me.
Matukituki Valley / Rob Roy Valley Track I left Sally to nurse her Franz Josef glacier walking strains, with strict instructions on uploading photos to the blog whilst I was gone, as I set off for a bumpy drive to the start of the Rob Roy Valley Track. The journey didn't seem that bad to begin with, as the road stayed sealed longer than I expected. I was making good progress, having covered a third of the distance in no time...than I ran out of tarmac. Still, I thought, the gravel road wasn't so bad as it was fairly compacted. It wasn't long until I reached the loose stuff. With every stone hitting the underside of the car sounding violent enough to do some damage I slowed down to 50kph...then 40kph when I hit the first cattle grid...then almost to a standstill
Matukituki Valley
The return view back to the car was equally stunning for the second of the fords having nearly destroyed the suspension on the first ford.
It took about an hour from Wanaka to the car park to cover the 51km, but I was relieved to arrive with the car still in one piece - it still needed to get us to Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin, Mt. Cook and Christchurch! However, along the way I stopped a number of times to admire the stunning views and take a few pictures. I did try and capture a genuine New Zealand lamb, but no doubt you'll see it on your plate in a few months time. Besides, I had Sally's words of scorn ringing in my ears from the last time I tried to get a photo of the worlds tastiest lamb : "What do you want to take a photo of the sheep for!!!? We have them in the UK. Eveyone knows what they look like!".
I eagerly set off, overlooked by the snow capped Mt. Aspiring, with an incredibly blue river flowing down alongside me, still in amazement that water really can come in such an impressive array of blues. Even the sun was shining brightly and warmly, could
it get much better than this?
It wasn't long before I reached the swingbridge that would divert me up the gorge towards Mt. Roy. A slightly hair raising one this, but nothing that couldn't be handled after Buller Gorge. The track then started its steady but unrelenting climb, but not without one last stunning view down onto the Matukituki Valley. From here on in, the track got rather interesting. I had to watch my footing on the loose boulders (both underfoot and overhead) and tangled tree roots. For what must have been over an hour, I followed the gorge and its thundering blue glacial melt river upwards towards its source. Ocassionally I'd catch glimpses of Mt. Roy up ahead and hints at the glacier that sits on it.
Just when you think you're at the top, there's a little further to go. At this point the track split off in several directions where people had tried to find the easiest route to cross a very boulder strewn and tricky to tackle but (fortunately) dried up little river gorge. Shortly afterwards, the view opens up gloriously into what I suppose you'd describe as a hanging valley. I picked my
The road to Wanaka
Another blue river winds its way through a gorge boulder upon which to rest, replenish and take in my amazing surroundings. Mt. Roy sat spectacularly snow capped in front of me, with various waterfalls dropping from great heights and eventually finding their way down to the gorge I'd walked up. Cheeky Keas (like a big parrot) were flying above...it wasn't long before these inquisitive birds came down to check out the trampers that had made it up here. Despite being able to see the snow and glacier, it was pleasantly warm in this sun trap. I could have stayed up here all day in this beautifual spot. However, it was time to get back to Wanaka before the drive to Queenstown.
On the way down I passed many weary walkers. Many wanting to know how much further they had to tramp. As I got further down, the news for the walkers got increasingly bleak!
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