West Matukituki Valley

Queenstown is something. I arrived late afternoon and had a hostel that was in a busy area. After everyplace I had been being quiet and low key, Queenstown was a bit much. It is a place where people go for high end shopping, fancy restaurants, and ADVENTURE!!!!! There are many many places to book many many different types of adventures. You can easily spend lots of money really fast. The energy of Queenstown is nice, but maybe not by myself.

I decided to get going, and my next trip was up West Matukituki Valley. I needed to get to Wanaka for that trip. Wanaka is a smaller quieter version of Queenstown. But it is also a destination wedding location. Wanaka is really pleasant.

I found a place to stay, booked my bus trip to West Matukituki Valley, and went looking for lunch. I found Eriks Fish and Chips, everything available gluten free. What that means is that there is no gluten in anything they serve. I ate fish and chips just about every meal I ate in Wanaka.

I got an early bus to the valley, it was full of people taking a day trip to the Rob Roy Glacier, but for me I had a reservation to get a ride back to Wanaka 4 days later.

West Matukituki Valley is a glaciated valley, with a number of glaciers still there. So the valley is relatively flat, and open. Most of the first day was on private land, (aside from the side trip to the Rob Roy Glacier), and there were lots of sheep and cows, and since it was spring, there were lots of lambs.

The walk to get to the side trail for the glacier took only about 15 minutes, and there was another suspension bridge. The trail then went up and up. But it was a normal trail. The sign had the correct time to get to the glacier viewing area. Once up to the open area, the valley opened up and flattened a bit. My guess is this is a hanging valley that has eroded a bit. It was an interesting spot at the stream below the glacier. As it was late spring and I was pretty much directly under the leading edge of the glacier. If a big chunk broke off, I and others were right there where the debris would end up.

After hanging out at the end of the trail where most people stop, I thought I might wander up the route that goes up and over the saddle. I thought I might be able to get up to a snow field. Again, this was a route, in places there was nothing resembling a trail to follow, but there were some orange triangle markers, but those were a bit sparse as I remember, but it wasn’t really a problem. I dropped my pack in a convenient spot because I knew I was coming back. Nice thing about New Zealand, I really did not have to worry about critters getting into my pack and food. I was just going uphill and across the slope at the same time. It was deep grassy slopes with some big rocks, it took care watching steps. There were also slumps where I guess avalanches took away all the surface grass. These slumps were loose rock and dirt. I started crossing one and while I was mainly going across the slope, it was so steep I was concerned that if I starting slipping, I would start enough rocks and dirt sliding with me that it would be a problem. So, I turned around and retraced my steps across that slump. I then picked my up and over the slump. That was way easier, or at last a lot safer.

I eventually reached a spot where I thought, this is far enough. I still needed to get back down to the valley and get to my camping spot for the evening. But I hung out on the steep grassy slope for a bit and just watched the glacier and enjoyed the spot. But I started hearing some rumbling, and managed to see a couple of avalanches. They looked similar to a water fall at the distance, but the avalanche would stop and start.

Eventually headed back down, and when I left my pack it seemed like a very obvious spot, but when I made my was back down, it was not quite as obvious. I didn’t have a difficult time, I think these places are just larger than your brain thinks they are.

I made my way back down to the valley, and was basically at my starting point for the day. But just an easy walk up the valley. For some reason that still baffles me a bit, this was the hardest easy hike ever. I think I was just tired. But walking up a glacier valley full of sheep and cows on a beautiful day was a lot of fun.

I decided to camp instead of staying in the hut, while not crowded there was a group there, and I was getting tired of huts, even though I had not been in a crowded hut. It was nice grass field.

Oh, and I had/have image timestamp issues. I walked up and down the valley, but some of the pictures are definitely out of order, or maybe not, at this point I just don’t know. urgh.

I continued up the valley to get to first camping spot. I could stay in hut, but happy to camp. If you ever get chance to walk in open glacier valley, do not pass up that opportunity.

The next day was a trip to Liverpool Hut. The valley was much the same as previous day, but without the cows and sheep. I eventually arrived at another suspension bridge over an obviously glacier fed stream. It had that glacier water coloring. After that the trail went up steeply. Not sure how long a climb up, but the trail remained a trail in that is was easy to follow, but some scrambling was involved, and climbing up in spots. Eventually I got above the trees and off to my left as the the Liverpool hut. It was pretty cool view, as it was right there, but not really. The trail went way up above the hut and over a ridget then back down to the hut.

I took a break enjoying the location, and a other hikers started showing up. Then it started to rain, so I hung out in the hut for a while. After the rain stopped, I headed out to wander up the slope behind the hut. Off trail wandering, on recently rained upon slope. It was excellent. It was steep, and scary in spots, and of course going down is way scarier than going up. That is important to keep in mind when going up. I have to do down this very same slope. It was a mixture and steep grassy slopes, and loose rocky scree slopes. The upslope side on the little tufts of grass provided a nice sort of flat secure spot for footing, but wet grass requires care. The rocky areas were just loose rocky slopes. Fine as long as you don’t start sliding.

I went up almost to snow areas. I reached a shoulder type of spot. I don’t think that highest spot was where I took my favorite image of the whole trip, but a the picture with the hut in view in sunlight and the valley beyond. Wonderful. It is hard to describe. I have a few images in my brain of amazing places I have visited. The image from this spot is in that same brain space.

So, the hut got crowded. I think a hut for 12, and there were 15 people. Three guys who showed up late slept on floor. That might have been better. I did grab an end spot on top shelf, next to a small window. Slept right next to my new best friend I had not met before. It was fine. I think I was the big obnoxious snoring monster on this whole NZ trip, so I won’t complain about that.

After some rain and a break, a bit of wandering up the mountain.

The next morning was a head back day. There is another hut across the valley, the French Ridge Hut, I could just barely see it on the ridge. Next time I want to head over to that hut also. But after everyone else left, I wander around a bit on the slopes behind hut. Not the same slope I had climbed up previous evening, I actually wasn’t feeling up for that again, but in a slightly different direction up towards different peak. I got stymied by some snow/ice spots and steep rocky slopes, so this wandering did not go as far as I expected. But I did get to watch some avalanches from the glacier(?) I could see. Not sure if it was glacier or just spring melt of snow pack. But I was able to see a number of avalanches.

After that little adventure I headed off back down the trail to get to the spot I stayed in the previous night. I had to take my pack of once or twice to climb down the trail. Fun stuff. At the bottom after I crossed the suspension bridge, I walked upstream a bit and found this amazing waterfall that I could hear and sort of see. The beautiful icy, icy waterfall I could only sort of see thru this vertical crack. I think if I hadn’t been alone, I would have tried to get to that big rock you can see in the pic below. Aside from the water being cold, it was a chilly day, it was raining on and off, etc. Ok, I sort of blew it. I had a dry bag, so I could have gotten myself and camera there.

After that is was a nice walk back to the camping spot. I reached a convenient spot and laid down against my pack and I could see a couple of glaciers, one up valley from my spot on Mt Aspiring. (This was Mt Aspiring National Park). As I relaxed, I kept hearing thunder like noise. And I was able to watch avalanches from two different spots. I managed to view a huge avalanche on Mt Aspiring. The pics are blurry, but that is a huge drop, I was thinking 1000 feet while I was there, but I don’t know, probably not that much. I was at least five miles away, and the sound of that avalanche really was thunderous. Later that day, I talked to a ranger who heard way further down the valley.

I arrived at my camping spot and had some time to kill, so I took off on a side trail that went up the valley side. I was hoping to get above the trees, but I did not want to have to come down in the dark, even though I had a light and this was an actual easy to follow trail. I got I think most of the way up, but reached a washed out area that was kind of challenging to get across, and combined with the sun getting low, I turned around and headed back. Nothing really interesting seen, but a good couple of hours hiking.

The next day was also easy, hike out, catch my bus, and eat some fish and chips in Wanaka. At one point on the way out, there was a route going straight up the grassy slopes. From the valley I could make out the markers. Since I had time, I started up the slope. I went a little ways up, but those uphills were killing me. Plus, it is amazing how close something can seem in these big valleys. You think some landmark is a close, but not so much.

When I go back to New Zealand, I don’t think I could not visit this place again. Truly special.