Day 16 – Rob Roy Valley Track in Mt. Aspiring National Park

The Rob Roy Track is considered one of the best tracks in NZ. Getting there in a camper van is not so easy. Matt had been joking about doing some serious off-roading and he got his wish. 31km of rugged dirt road, complete with multiple river ford crossings. Each time we took the camper across a “ford” we held our breath and hoped that the wheels had a enough traction to get us across. The track started off crossing wide open pasture lands with Mt. Aspiring at the end of the valley. We followed the Matukituki River along with the sheep and grazing cattle. It was wonderful! We crossed the River and the swing bridge and then the journey really began. This is the trail description in the track pamphlet: “The first section of the track is a little steeper but then gently undulates through beech and native forests.” Ummmm, there was nothing gentle about it. It was a 2 hours hike up steep switch backs and climbing over rocks for an elevation gain of 1300 feet. It was exhausting, however, everytime the glacier would peek through the trees it helped us to keep moving up. The trail climbed through beech trees and native forests following the Matukituki River. There were mountainous gorges, waterfalls, rapids and the glacier always looming ahead.

When we finally made it to the end of the track, I made 2 flat rocks my resting place and just laid down looking up at the mountains. The glacier was impressive and as we looked around, there were definite signs of avalanches, flooding and massive rock slides. I was very content on my rock, but with the sun dropping behind the mountain, the temperature started to drop. The hike down was of course faster, but brutally pounding on my knees. There were times that I seemed to pick up too much speed and felt like an out of control vehicle looking for runaway ramp to slow myself down. We passed hikers going up, and I could not believe they were attempting the climb so late in the day, but like us, everyone seemed clueless to the climb ahead of them.

We continued down and across the valley, could see a massive sheep herd being driving to a new pasture. It was like a freeway of sheep all moving in unison, being driven by the dogs. A few would stray down towards the river, but they did not go unnoticed for long. Overall, the track was great, just a bit more challenging than we had anticipated. 5 hours after setting out, we were back to the camper and happy to sit down.