Rob Roy Glacier is the one hanging off the cliff at the head of a side valley in the West Matukituki, with waterfalls pouring off it and the odd chunk of ice letting go with a bang you hear before you see. The Rob Roy Glacier Track is the walk in to it, three to four hours return from the Raspberry Creek car park. It is the picture most people have seen of this park, and it sits above the valley we run the jet boat up, so we get asked about it a lot.
The track
It is graded Easy and it is fine for older kids, but easy is doing some work in that sentence. You cross the Matukituki on a swing bridge, then climb steadily up a gorge to a lower lookout and on to the upper one, with a few sections that have steep drop-offs. At the top you are looking straight at the glacier, with waterfalls coming off it. In good weather it is one of the best half-day walks in the country.
The numbers: about 10 km return by the sign, roughly 500 metres of climb, three to four hours at a normal pace. No fee, no booking, no huts. Toilets at the car park. Do not count on phone signal once you are past Glendhu Bay. From May to November the advice is not to go past the lower lookout because of avalanche risk, and that applies even when there is no snow on the track. That advice is not caution for the sake of it.
The road
This is the part nobody tells you about until you are on it. Raspberry Creek car park is 54 km west of Wānaka on the Wanaka-Mount Aspiring Road, about an hour and twenty minutes each way. The last 30 km are gravel, and there are several creeks to drive through in the last 10 km. After a day without rain the fords are usually fine for a 2WD car or a campervan. After heavy rain they are not, and the road washes out and gets closed. Some rental agreements restrict unsealed roads and fords, so check yours before you go. If you are doing this from Queenstown, allow four hours of driving on top of the walk, and see Queenstown to Wānaka for the routes. If the road is closed it is posted online, or ring us, we are up there most days.
If that is more road than you fancy, we drive it and take you up the river instead: four hours from the Wānaka i-SITE, $359 per adult, $229 per child aged 4 to 14, guided walk and all gear included. That is our Wanaka jet boat and wilderness walk.
About an hour of walking at a gentle pace, and you can stay by the boat instead. Bring a warm layer, a hat and closed shoes; we supply life jackets and wet-weather gear. Minimum age four. If we call a trip off for river levels you are refunded in full.
Book the Jet Boat and Wilderness Walk
The way up the valley without the road or the climb
Our jet boat runs up the West Matukituki under the same mountains. On a clear day you get Rob Roy Glacier and Avalanche Glacier from the river, and Tititea Mt Aspiring at the head of the valley, from the valley floor with the boat doing the work. There is still a walk, about an hour, guided, through beech forest to McGills Creek, and it is flat enough for a four year old and a grandparent on the same trip. You can stay by the boat if you would rather. No fords, no gravel road, no long climb. We leave from the Wānaka i-SITE and have you back in about four hours. More on the valley itself in The Matukituki Valley and on the park in Mount Aspiring National Park.
If you are fit, it is summer and the road is dry, do the track. It is a beauty and we will tell you so. Take the boat instead if you have kids under about eight, want a walk without the climb, have half a day rather than a full one, it is raining (the waterfalls run hard in the wet, see Wānaka on a rainy day), it is winter, or you are in a rental you are not supposed to take past the seal. Plenty of people do both. Walk one day, boat the next, and you have seen the valley from the top and the bottom.
The trip is $359 per adult and $229 per child aged 4 to 14, and that includes the guided walk, all your gear and the drive up the valley from town. Departures at 9:45am and 12:45pm from 1 October to 30 April, 12:45pm through winter. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
About an hour of walking at a gentle pace, and you can stay by the boat instead. Bring a warm layer, a hat and closed shoes; we supply life jackets and wet-weather gear. Minimum age four. If we call a trip off for river levels you are refunded in full.
Three to four hours return, about 10 km, from Raspberry Creek car park. Add an hour and twenty minutes each way for the drive from Wānaka.
It is graded Easy, but there is a steady climb of roughly 500 metres, a swing bridge and some steep drop-offs. Fine for fit older kids, hard work for anyone with sore knees.
To the car park, yes: 54 km from Wānaka, the last 30 km gravel with several fords. After heavy rain the fords can be impassable and the road can close. You cannot drive to the glacier itself.
On a clear day, yes, it hangs above the West Matukituki and you get it from the river along with Avalanche Glacier and Mt Aspiring itself. In cloud you get the waterfalls off it instead.
Not comfortably. The track is three to four hours plus nearly three hours of driving. Walk one day and take the 9:45am or 12:45pm boat the next.
No, the minimum age is four. Older grandchildren are fine, and the walk suits a four year old and a grandparent on the same trip.
Closures are posted online. Or ring us on +64 3 443 4416.
More questions? See all FAQs or call +64 3 443 4416.
✓ Free cancellation up to 48 hours before departure, and a full refund if we cancel for weather.
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