Rob Roy Glacier

Trip Start Nov 16, 2009

111

Trip End May 01, 2010

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Flag of New Zealand Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Last time I was in Wanaka, I heard great things about the Rob Roy Glacier, however it is only accessible by car. Or you can pay 70$ for a bus ride down there… A local on the Kepler track had also recommended we hike to the glacier so we did! Half the adventure is just getting to the car park: you first drive down Mount Aspiring Road for about half an hour and then down this gravel road for an hour after that. This is no ordinary gravel road by any other than kiwi standards as getting across it involves a few ford crossings. Yes, fords, aka rivers. They don't believe in bridges around here, and when they do, they are single lane ones. I always shout out when I see a two lane bridge because they are so rare. Anyway, it’s a good thing it hasn’t rained in about 2 weeks because our little Bella Blanca might not have made it through. We nearly had water coming in through the doors as it was (ok, maybe not). It is a beautiful road however, and well worth the drive for the views of the mountains and such

One of many ford crossings

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            We eventually made it to the car park and started the hike up to the glacier. You don’t actually go up the glacier itself, but rather to a place from where you get a good view of it. Joris ran up the mountain and I chassed after him. Thankfully there are quite a few streams along the way which are good for filling up water bottles with fresh cold water (and having water fights…). It was a hot hot day and shade was scarce at the top, but we managed to find some, huddled under some bushes. The glacier was stunning, shining in all its glory in the bright sunlight, sadly making it a dreadful candidate for good photos. It’s the memory that matters most anyway though.

            Because it was so hot, the waterfalls off the mountain were roaring, much to our delight. We wandered off the track a little ways to check out the river. So blue! There is nothing quite like the rivers on the South Island… On the way back down we literally ran the whole way, except when we stopped to talk to a whole bunch of our neighbours from the camping ground, namely a very nice young Swiss family. Joris also somehow managed to scare the living daylights out of one lady, though she was a bit odd and there wasn’t anything he could have done differently to avoid it. Indeed, she was scared by us but he didn’t actually scare her: we were walking down the trail behind her for a while because they were going down at a snail’s pace and somehow she did not hear us for quite some time and then she jumped out of her skin when we asked to pass. Weird. Another rather interesting encounter was that with a couple of nude hikers in the parking lot. This car park is also used for people doing a multi-day hike and these two men had clearly just come back from that. I knew they must be European; Germans as it turns out.

            Another wonderful day in the sun…

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