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Tasman Glacier View Tracks

Short Tracks To Iceberg Views

Difficulty: Easy and moderate short walks (500m to 1.3km one-way)
Tasman Glacier View Tracks
NZGps: 43° 41' 52.17" S 170° 9' 47.5848" E
3.75
Average: 3.8 (4 votes)

Glacier View Track: A Must-See! The 15-minute steep stepped-track to the top of the Tasman Glacier’s moraine ridge is amazing. The track is Steep, but the payoff is worth it! The view sweeps over the entire glacial lake and its scattered flotilla of icebergs. This birds-eye view down onto the glacial toe and lake is quite unlike any on the Hooker Valley/Lake track.

The Tasman Glacier itself hardly looks like a glacier, given that it’s covered with a heap of black rubble with only small slices of white showing up through its rubble covering. Looking up the glacier to the 3,000m+ peaks at its head—Mts Tasman and Haast—it’s interesting to ponder that these are the very peaks that also spawn the both the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers that flow westward. Both West Coast glacier valleys are no more than 30km from this very viewpoint!

From the Tasman Glacier view the commercial iceberg-tour boats can often be seen below cruising amongst the ‘bergs. These boats, surprisingly named “Titanic” and “Global Warmer”*, give you a good perspective how mammoth those icebergs are! (*just kidding about the names.)

Tasman Lake Track: It’s about an easy 15-minute one-way (1.3km) walk to a lake-level view of the lake and its turbid outlet river. This view isn’t nearly as interesting as the “glacier view” from atop the moraine ridge. This track is the access point for the iceberg-view boat dock.

Blue Lakes Track: These two impounded glacial tarn-lakes are hardly worth the quick look, as they are not as blue as they once were.

Excerpt from "NZ Frenzy Guidebook" by Scott CookNZ Frenzy Guidebook

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Comments

Definitely do Hooker Valley

Jules2's picture

Definitely do Hooker Valley and then Tasman Glacier View if you have time. Glacier is so dirt covered that one in our party didn't realize there was a glacier there. The walk to the glacier view is all stairs to the top so doable in all weather. Small yellow tour boats give you some perspective on the size of icebergs floating in lake. Icebergs don't look that big until a boat with about 20 people get close and that boat looks ant-sized!!!

4

Submitted by Jules2 on Sun, 2018-04-01 13:22

We absolutely loved the view

Klaas's picture

We absolutely loved the view from the top of the morain. We walked 5 minutes away from the viewpoint to have some piece and quiet, and were all by ourselves.

5

Submitted by Klaas on Thu, 2017-12-28 14:30

In case you have limited time

horskyi's picture

In case you have limited time do Hooker track only. This one is OK as well but views to Mt Cook are much better there. To see real glacier, not that hidden bellow stones you must go quite far.

4

Submitted by horskyi on Mon, 2014-04-07 17:31

End of February, cloudy:

Ivot's picture

End of February, cloudy: okay-ish view, basically no icebergs, grey lake. Only worth it if nothing better to do.

2

Submitted by Ivot on Sun, 2014-03-09 14:01