Giveaways
JUST this summer, I revisited the Matukituki Valley, west of Lake Wānaka. The weather had been quite fine, at about 25 degrees C in the daytime, for about the past three weeks, so I thought it would make a lovely summer hike. Even though the weather is changeable in these parts it looked as though the fine weather was going to continue, so I went.
A satellite view shows the route from Queenstown to the West Matukituki Valley by way of Cardrona and Wānaka.
The road in from Wānaka has been added in red. Its continuation by way of the West Matukituki Track, a track for trampers (i.e., hikers) along the West Matukituki River West Branch (labelled here as West Matukituki River), has been indicated with yellow dots.
Here is a screenshot of a topographical map of the area, with the scale at bottom left.
And here’s a more photo-realistic aerial view of the West Matukituki Valley as well.
The words Mount Aspiring in this last view do not refer to the Matterhorn-like 3,033 m Mount Aspiring/Tititea, the highest mountain in New Zealand outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region, as such, but to the homestead of a sheep farm called Mount Aspiring Station, run by a family called the Aspinalls.
Mount Aspiring Station is also where the road from Wānaka, unsealed for much of the way, finally ends at a place called Raspberry Flat Carpark (also known as Raspberry Creek Car Park). There are several fords to drive through, so a 4WD vehicle is recommended, as well as doing the trip in dry weather like the weather the area had been experiencing for the past few weeks before we went.
Anyone going into this area should first download and study the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC)’s Matukituki Valley Tracks Brochure.
Like much of New Zealand’s mountain country, the region can be hazardous for the unwary. The brochure describes some of the pitfalls to avoid, in addition to the other useful information it contains.
Here are some photos from along the gravel road.
At Raspberry Flat, there’s a footbridge across a waterway called Big Creek. You carry on over the bridge to keep going along the track to the historic Aspiring Hut, erected in 1949 from concrete and river stones, and rebuilt over 7 months in 2022 at a cost of NZ $1.3 million.
The New Zealand Alpine Club, which built the hut originally, did a lot of the renovation work, though I’m not sure how the money was ultimately raised or what the final division of responsibility with DOC is these days.
The track, which initially follows a four-wheel drive road on Mount Aspiring Station, is fairly flat all the way to the Aspiring Hut, apart from one small hill climb.
There is a swimming hole with a beach along the way, which we made use of, though the water is freezing!
Here’s some interesting artwork along the way.
Not long after setting out for Aspiring Hut, we took a side trip up the Rob Roy Stream, toward the Rob Roy Glacier. The track to the glacier is more mountainous, and avalanche-prone in the snow season.
The Rob Roy Track, which also goes past the Bridal Veil Falls, was amazing and beautiful. It had lately been reopened after some maintenance work, so we were lucky.
Another, named waterfall that you can see along the way is the Bridal Veil Falls, long and thin.
By the time we got back, it was getting late. So, we stayed at the converted Aspinall Family Homestead, now a lodge. The next morning, we set out once more for Aspiring Hut.
A nearly full moon was setting over a mountain toward the head of the valley as the sun rose higher, just after 8 am.
Another popular hiking route along the trail is the route to Shotover Saddle, though it is fairly intrepid.
I’m not sure what these falls are called, but they look pretty good as well!
After a couple of hours. we got to the Aspiring Hut, which now has a kitchen that runs on bottled gas (warmer months only), solar-powered electric lighting, a new deck, and new sleeping quarters.
It used to have a stone chimney for an open fireplace, which made it very picturesque. But the stone chimney seems to have been taken down some years ago, perhaps because it was considered an earthquake hazard.
Instead, an enclosed wood burner with a metal chimney was installed in front of the fireplace, now blocked off.
Here’s a photo from one of my old, physical photo albums, in which you can see the disused fireplace with the wood burner in front of it.
These days, the hut also has a new wood burner to replace the old one. Unfortunately, the old fireplace is now entirely gone, and has been replaced by a bland metal screen.
Here’s a photo of the entrance, showing a contrast of the old stonework and new wooden additions. The new interior and exterior woodwork is mostly made from a really strong engineered product called Glulam, which helps to strengthen the hut against earthquakes.
Here’s a really grand view of the Aspiring Hut and the mountains behind, showing the entrance in the photo above. This is on the south side, so it is in shadow.
The valley is still wide and flat at Aspiring Hut, and there is a ‘first come, first served’ DOC campsite nearby, called the Aspiring Campsite. You have to book for the hut, of course. The hut now sleeps 38, and would have cost each of us NZ $40 a night. People were booking the hut for birthday parties at the weekend, all the way from Melbourne, so it’s obviously very popular. But we decided to pitch a tent and camp, which was only $5 a night. A lot of people are forced to camp, as it looks like the hut is booked right out to June.
The mountains, to the north, are where the West Matukituki Track branches further to the Liverpool Track (west), Upper West Matukituki Track (centre) and French Ridge Track (east), after first passing through Shovel Flat and Pearl Flat.
The Aspiring Hut is also where a route over the Cascade Saddle from the headwaters of Lake Wakatipu finishes up. Basically, the Aspiring Hut is the nerve centre for some of the finest hikes in New Zealand, as well as for those seeking to climb Mount Aspiring/Tititea, its original purpose.
Here’s one of the outbuildings to the Aspiring Hut, probably the ranger’s quarters (as with the gas cookers which are taken away for winter, the ranger is only in attendance only during the warmer months, as well.)
The inquisitive and vandalistic kea are sometimes a nuisance for campers at the Aspiring Campsite, but there weren’t any kea this time around. Maybe the dry weather disrupted the local food supplies and caused them to go somewhere else.
After hiking northward, we came to this sign describing how we were getting close to Shovel Flat and Pearl Flat.
Some of the bridges were really well maintained, they were just stunning, like this one with flagstones leading up to it. DOC had done a good job of their recent upgrades!
After the branching of the tracks, we headed along the Upper West Matukituki Track as far as Scott’s Bivy, a rock shelter. Here is a screenshot of a topographical map of this area, which refers to Scott’s Bivy, more formally, as Scotts Rock Bivouac.
The screenshot shows the area from Shovel Flat and Pearl Flat, at the bottom, to Bevan Col, at the top right, where the Upper West Matukituki Valley finally opens out onto the Bonar Glacier at the foot of Mount Aspiring/ Tititea.
People seeking to climb Mount Aspiring normally come up the valley to Bevan Col, and cross the Bonar Glacier to get to Colin Todd Hut and the mountain, which are just off the screenshot to the top right (the peak of Mount Aspiring is shown in the one near the start of this post).
The screenshot also shows the Liverpool Track, to Liverpool Hut, and the French Ridge Track to French Ridge Hut. The scale is at the bottom left.
As you can see from the following photograph, taken close to Scott’s Bivy and looking onward, it is there that the world of tramping or hiking ends and the world of mountaineering begins.
The next three photos are taken looking back down the Upper West Matukituki Valley from the vicinity of Scott’s Bivy.
Most of the Mount Cook Lilies had been eaten by deer, they were snapped right off, so we didn’t see as many lilies as we expected: that was a shame. We met a local guy who served in Search and Rescue, and he said that because of heavy bookings, right through to June, most of the locals were forced to camp when they sought to hike the valley.
Back in 2015, my French friend Jean-Claude and I spent a night at Scott’s Bivy before trying to push on up as far as Bevan Col, but we didn’t quite make it all the way.
You have to book for Liverpool Hut (in summer) and for French Ridge Hut now; Liverpool Hut takes 10 people and French Ridge Hut 20. They seem to be popular with young partygoing types, so that is something to bear in mind, even this far up into the wilderness.
Here is a video I made of the trip:
Now, while the above scenes look very summery, it is worth noting that this area doesn’t get much sun in winter, even when it isn’t actively snowing. Here are some outdoor pix of the same area that I took in the winter of 2019.
The winter photos are from my earlier 2019 post, Prelude to Aspiring, which contains a lot more information about the valley. You might also want to check out another post from 2021 called French Ridge, and, from the same year, Rees-Dart: The Most Beautiful Glacier, which describes a hike up to the Cascade Saddle from the west and a glance into the West Matukituki Valley, after which one could drop down toward the Aspiring Hut if desired though, on that occasion, we did not do so.
If you liked the post above, check out my book about the South Island! It’s available for purchase from my website a-maverick.com.
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