5-7 day walk in January

The East or West Matukituki valleys near Wanaka might fit your requirements. Plenty of options to lengthen or shorten your trip as required, and not many crowds beyond the Rob Roy glacier daywalk. Or maybe do a tour of the Haast Pass valleys. String the Brewster track, Makarora valley and Blue valleys togeather.

Thanks Yarmoss, I'll see if I can find some info int he tracks section on this tonight.

Hi, I have had a look at your suggested link up walks, looks like it could be nice. Though it does look like you are always pretty close or crossing the highway, is this right? IF so would prefer something a bit more remote, I guess the main thing I am trying to avoid is anything that requires technical alpine sorts of experience or 7 days without any track. Other than that happy to get as far away from people as possible, we can handle a day or 2 off track completing a link or or something.

Hey, Around Haast Pass, yes you would be crossing the road or even walking down it if you dont have a car. It is a fairly busy road, being the main Southern crossing to the West Coast, but the actual tracks are surprisingly unvisited. The Blue Pools as the entrance to the Blue Valley are a bit of a tourist circus, but they are aretty much the only spot people stop at between Wanaka and the coast so once you push past the bus loads of Japanese tourists you'll pretty much have the valley to yourselves. The 2 Matukitukis are like that as well. Heaps of daywalkers visit the Rob Roy glacier, but beyond the turn off to that the upper West Matukituki is just the realm of trampers and mountaineers heading for Mt Aspiring. You can certainly avoid even them by camping in the valley floor (there are awesome looking sites at Shovel and Pearl Flats). The views from above French Ridge hut are jaw dropping, as are from the Cascade Saddle. The East Matukituki in my experience is deserted. With no huts in this valley it soley is the domain of hardened trampers and the views of Aspiring are vastly differnt then from the Cascade. If you want something really remote then maybe consider the Dusky. The Dusky is becoming quite popular but is still remote enough that you might get the track to yourself (all 7-8 days) if you time it right. Its pretty hardcore though. Your not so experienced friends might be put off tramping all togeather after day 4 of wallowing through mud and fighting off the sandflies... or they might be like me when I did it on only my 3rd trip and totally loved it. Collapsing onto the boat for the ride across Lake Manapori at the end of day 8 was the greatest feeling of accomplishment Ive ever had :-)

lewis pass to matakituki valley via three tarns pass bobs hut ,east matakitauki hut david saddle into durville vally lake either moss pass into sabine via blue lake or down durville valley to lake rotorua then out to st arnard check out nelson lakes shuttles for information. WWW.nelsonlakesshuttles.co.nz also has plenty of trip reports

Thanks Tonya. Looks like a nice walk, have you done it? what kind of snow would you expect in Jan (I know its not always predictable). Also was sort of temps would you expect that time of year? Im not. I'm assuming around 10-15 degrees in the day? would that be right? @yarmoss, Dusky track looks great. That has made it to the top my of TODO list :-), just me though.. didn't have the same affect on my friends.

FORGET the Dusky Track unless unless you consider yourselves fit and experienced trampers ! For a neat coastal/bush tramp away from the crowds consider Cascade (just down from Haast) to Gorge River. You could return to Haast or continue down to Big bay and Lake McKerrow and return to TeAnau via the Hollyford track. I did this last Dec. and with a buddy, intend going back to Gorge River at the end of this year.Check out Robert Long - Beansprout and his book on FaceBook. This route is well described in Moirs Guide North.

yep ive done it but from lake rotorua to lewis pass .in january it will be snow free.If you did get snow would should be very little temp more likly to be 20degrees 15 at night. We stayed in a hut every night but there are plenty of camping spots.In seven days we only encounted 2 other persons.We did get a boat ride up lake rotorua but you could walk to sabine hut from st arnard if you wanted.our trip was lake rotorua to west sabine,west sabine to blue lake, blue lake to durville biv, biv to east matakituki,east matakituki,to bobs hut ,bobs hut to ada pass then we walked the st james walk way but you can go to lewis pass instead .

Something in Arthur's Pass might suit your needs as well. Plenty of options to link tracks/passes together for a multi day trip. Kelly Range/Popes pass and then on to Whitehorn/Browning/Harmen passes. Great views, not many people and you can start & finish in the same place. Also can catch tranz alpine train to start of track from Christchurch. ?Is the 3 tarns pass mentioned above a recognised route? I am thinking of heading that general direction in Feb & wondered if there was a route that way, nothing on my map.