Tasman Glacier View track and the Blue Lakes

DOC describes the Tasman Glacier View track as a short, steep climb that ends in panoramic views of Tasman Lake and the Haupapa/Tasman Glacier.⁹ It is 1.5 km return on the same track and takes about 30 min.^1,2 DOC grades it an easy to intermediate walking track.¹⁰ Nothing about it is technical, but the stairs make it a real climb, and the reward at the top is out of all proportion to the effort.

The lookout stands on top of a rocky wall of glacial debris, the moraine.¹¹ From there you look across Tasman Lake to the glacier at its far end and, when the cloud is high, to Aoraki/Mount Cook and the snow-capped Southern Alps beyond.¹² What surprises people is the colour of the ice: in its lower reaches the Tasman is covered with rock material, not white snow.¹³ The grey ridges you see beyond the water are glacier, buried under its own rubble.

The lake below is young. DOC states that Tasman Lake did not exist until 1974 and that it is growing rapidly as the glacier melts.^14,15 In summer it carries icebergs and in winter it freezes over.¹⁶ The view is never quite the same twice: bergs drift from the ice face toward the outlet, the water changes from milky grey to steel blue with the light, and snow comes and goes on the peaks above.

The Blue Lakes and Tasman Glacier walks share a start and much of their route. The Blue Lakes side trip is a 500 m, 5-minute detour off the main track to the nearest lake, where the path stops.¹⁹ It adds little effort to the outing, and it is a quieter corner of the valley when the main lookout is busy with tour groups.

The name tells an old story. DOC explains that the little lakes owed their old blue to glacial meltwater; today rain fills them and they look green.^29,30 The glacier that once filled them with milky water has pulled back up the valley. Standing beside them, you are looking at a small, visible record of the same retreat that the big lake beyond the moraine shows on a much larger scale.

Keep your eyes open on the way. DOC notes that New Zealand's smallest bird, the rifleman or titipounamu, is sometimes seen around the Blue Lakes.²⁸ Along the track grow speargrass or taramea, matagouri or tumatakuru and the mountain daisy, tikumu.³¹ Kea, the mountain parrot, may also turn up; DOC reminds visitors that kea are protected native birds and must never be fed.³²

From Aoraki/Mount Cook Village, drive back down the highway toward Twizel. Take the second turning on the left, Tasman Valley Road, which comes after the Hooker Valley Road junction.⁶³ Over the one-way bridge, keep going until the road ends at Tasman Valley car park.¹⁷ DOC puts the drive along Tasman Valley Road at about 7 km from the highway.³³ The last stretch is gravel, and campervans manage it at a sensible speed.

DOC lists travel times by car of 10 min from the village, 50 min from Twizel and 1 hr 30 min from Tekapo.⁶⁴ The Tasman Glacier car park offers free parking for cars and campervans, but it has no marked mobility spaces.⁵ It gets very busy in the summer season from November to April, and DOC asks drivers who find it full to park along Tasman Valley Road with care.³⁴

Facilities are basic. The car park toilets shut over winter, and a dry summer can put them out of action too.⁷ There are picnic tables and a day shelter with seating.⁶⁵ Drinking water is not available, and there are no rubbish bins.^8,53 Mobile phones have no coverage here.⁶⁶ Campers should know that wastewater cannot be disposed of in the park; the closest public dump station is in Twizel.⁶⁷

The Tasman Glacier viewpoint gives the overview, but it keeps you at a distance. Walking out onto the lake ice is not an option: DOC warns that walking on the ice could put your life at risk.⁵² To stand on the glacier itself safely you need a guide and a helicopter. The heli hike we sell flies you up from Mount Cook Airport for as long as 2 hours of guided walking on the glacier, from $528.

Without a car, a Tekapo shuttle does the driving: its 8.5-hour day includes 45 minutes at the Tasman Glacier Viewpoint plus 4 hours on the Hooker Valley Track, from $99. Bring your own lunch; the operator supplies water and snacks. You see the park's well-known walks in a single outing and leave the mountain roads to someone else.

The walk also pairs well with the flying options. After a heli hike or a ski plane landing, climbing to the lookout shows you from the moraine wall where you have just been, which puts the size of the glacier into perspective. If cloud grounds the aircraft, the track is still worth doing, and the lake can look dramatic under a low, grey sky.