Tasman Glacier View Tracks

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.