Aoraki National Park has so much to offer that it is wise to get there early and to take advantage of any day of fine weather to do so. Therefore, we went back for the second day in a row – this time to tackle the Mueller Hut Track and we are infinitely glad we did.
Up, up, up to the ridge and into the alpine terrain, to a ridge surrounded by hanging glaciers and looking down on the Mueller Valley Glacier.
We had seen the tip of this 13km (8mile) long glacier the day before, but the tip is mostly covered in rubble (as many glaciers here are) and from our viewpoints yesterday we couldn’t see up into the valley.
From Mueller Hut, we could still only see the first few miles of it, but enough of it to realize just how massive it is. Parts of it have less rubble, allowing us to see the whites and blues.
Add in the views across the wide valley to the steep, craggy faces of the high mountains across, each filled with multiple hanging glaciers – and this is truly paradise.
But we had to earn this spectacle of nature.
The Mueller Hut track is one of the few hikes you can do in NZ that gets you right up into the alpine mountains without needing climbing equipment or (in summer) mountaineering experience. You simply start at 1000 meters and go straight up for 6km.
The first half is all steps (of every size, shape and substance) = 2200 of them.
That’s the easy part.
At Sealy Tarns, the real work starts.
From there it is just a poled route steeply up through rocks – first boulder clambering, then over medium sized but less stable rocks, and then finally through scree (which is a nice way of saying a slippery mess of small stones.)
But at the top, the view into the valley, across to Mt Sefton, over to Aoraki, looking way down at the Hooker Valley and the icebergs on the Hooker Lake is out of this world and worth every step (and the worry about tumbling down!)
We had been sweating on the way up, but at the ridgeline were immediately hit with a blast of icy (literally glacial) cold air and quickly donned our hats and coats, although it was hard to pause from gawking at the views for even that long.
After climbing more rocks to the viewpoint looking towards Aoraki and its wonders, we turned and followed the ridge trail (relatively flat now) over yet more rocks and now some snow patches towards the final destination of Mueller Hut.
Many people stay here overnight, or camp in the surrounding area – sleeping in a tent on rocks with this icy wind howling does not sound fun to me so we remain just day trippers.
As we were walking along this ridge soaking in the incredible wonder, we heard multiple rumbles as glaciers were moving and cracking so very close to us. We even saw a huge chunk of snow break off a hanging one and cascade down – looking exactly like a white waterfall, but one that abruptly ended once spent. Neither of us have ever seen an avalanche, and the power of even this small one was something to behold.
We also saw two Keas (alpine parrots) soaring and chatting overhead – another rare treat. After a snack and absorbing as much eye candy as we could, we scrambled down, stepped down, and finally walked down and back to our car for lunch.
We then visited the excellent DOC education center to learn more about this incredible land and the people who love it. The part we have seen is a mere fraction of the park, of which over 40% is covered in glaciers.
