Mount Aspiring National Park

Note my beet red face!
Still Smiling at the Top!

(He says:)
New Zealand’s third largest national park enjoys World Heritage status and contains scenery ranging from snow and glacier clad mountains to rugged rock faces, spectacular forested valleys and picturesque river flats. We chose the “Rob Roy Valley Walk”. According to the guide book this is a one hour drive from Wanaka where are staying. The guidebook fails to mention that this is on an unsealed (eg gravel) road. Driving on this road is like driving a car before the invention of the pneumatic tire. The guide book does say that on the road there are several fords. There are in fact 10. Some are dry (filled with rocks) and some are wet (filled with water as well as rocks).

The guide book says that the track, which starts by a river and ends at the foot of a glacier, climbs steadily – for steadily read relentlessly. Half way up the track is a sign which reads “Caution. Track damaged ahead. Proceed with caution.” We did. We were however passed by younger Kiwis bounding up the track or running down. One family of 3 had stopped by the glacial river to see how cold the water was. They had a competition to see who could keep their hand in the longest. Duncan said they must be in training for the “Iron Man” competition and they did confess that the previous day they had done a 56km cycling trip. Duncan says that he now understands why the All Blacks seem to do so well at rugby. We even met a couple with a newborn baby who had already climbed to the top and were on their way down.

We made it to the top and back and our car made it on the two hour “washboard” ride. We returned to a well earned shower and dinner in the garden of our B&B.

(She says:) The unsealed road was the hairiest part of the trip. Every time we went into one of those fords, I pictured us stuck there, unable to move. I also remembered my good friend Sylv’s story about how her son Michael ripped out the undercarriage of his car on just a small pile of rocks. Our little Toyota Corolla deserves a medal for the service it did that day. Not only were there huge rocks but the dips in the fords were steep. A Jeep or a Landrover was what we really needed. In fact when we got back to the B & B, Trish, our hostess, said an American couple staying there a few days before had ruined the suspension on their rental car. As we have a $2500 deductable on ours, I’d wished she’d told us this before we set off. However, if she had, we would have chickened out and missed the climb to the glacier.

This was just what we needed as we’d had little time to do much hiking previously. This first trip to NZ has been a “recce” to get an overview of the country. Before we left I thought it would be our only trip, but now I’m already trying to figure out how soon, and how we can get back!

If I’d had any notion that I could tramp from hut to hut at my age, these illusions were destroyed on the hike. This was a category 2 hike – moderate. One (foolish) girl was hiking it in Crocs! We were very happy we’d taken the trouble to lug our trusty sturdy hiking boots – taking them off and putting them on, having them checked at security at all the airports. My face was blazing red as we puffed our way up over rocks and roots. Just when I thought the summit must be around the next bend, we asked 2 healthy looking Kiwi females, “How much further?” They told us about 45 minutes (!) but that the view at the top was worth it, and that the track would level out. The first statement was true, the second blatantly false. It was an uphill slog with switchbacks. Once up, we used a wide flat glacial rock as our resting place and lunch table. This is the sort of expedition that is worth it, tour buses just can’t get across the fords and up into these mountains. The Kiwis are much less inclined to figure out a way for that to happen too. Their wilderness areas are just that, unspoiled and pristine.