Robert's Point Track - the best in the west

Five hours return gets you the best view from the valley of the Franz Josef Glacier.

Most visitors to the Franz Josef Glacier head straight for the garden-variety glacier viewpoint track. With the glacier retreating, it doesn’t offer much of a glacier view any more, and from time to time access further up the valley is cut off by the shifting whims of the Waiho River. What they don’t tell you, though, is that the Roberts Point Track on the true right of the Waiho River is one of the best glacier viewpoints around. Most tourist eschew it as it requires a higher level of fitness to get there. It’s around five hours return and climbs 400m vertical, but it’s a piece of cake if you’re used to regular tramping tracks in New Zealand.

The track starts at the big gravel car park on the true left of the river, along with (depending on Covid), varying levels of tourists in rental cars and crammed into buses. From here you head (counterintuitively) north, as if you were going back out to the west coast. Within 10-15 minutes you’ll come across Peter’s Pool, a little piece of reflection perfection that gets little attention when competing with famous Lake Matheson at Fox Glacier. The pool is actually a kettle lake, formed by a huge block of ice that was left behind during the glacier’s withdrawal. The ice melts and creates a depression among the moraine left by the glacier. Like the glacier, Peter’s Pool is always changing, and one day there will be little left of it.

The track ascends briefly and down to the Waiho River where a bridge is essential for crossing. There is much danger for the unsuspecting tourist, as illustrated below. Indeed, people who try to cross the Waiho have been known to perish.

The track winds along the bank of the Waiho, turning a corner and offering you a long swingbridge to enjoy:

And within an hour you’ll have historic Hende’s Hut to enjoy, or use as shelter for a snack stop. The hut is named after its builder Peter Hende, who used it while he worked as a smithy, creating the hanging gallery you get to walk on (more on that in a mo).

Hende’s Gallery isn’t for people with a fear of heights! The cantilevered gallery was built in 1907 and restored by DoC in 1996. It hangs courtesy of wrought iron bars driven into the sheer rock walls, built by men dangling down on ropes.

An earlier version, built lower down, was wrecked by the glacier when it advanced. It’s a fun wee walk, but you wouldn’t want to have to shuffle past someone going the other way (unless you liked them a lot).

Above Hende’s Hut the track offers a view down the Waiho River valley, to Sentinel Rock and Teichelmann Rock, the lumps of terrain in the bed of the river valley. These humps are around 280-290m high and were originally completely covered by the glacier. Imagine that, as it retreats: surprise!

After a very featured walk and around 2.5h of steady uphill walking you’ll come to a platform with a picnic table and the best view of the glacier from the valley. Take a moment to stare at it and think about climate change. You’ll hear helicopters coming and going, up and down Avgas Alley.

Back in the day it was possible to walk from Robert’s Point directly onto the glacier and across the valley to Cape Defiance Hut, which was tucked around the corner from the ridge you see running down from the right into the middle of the image. However, that’s obviously no longer possible. The Glacier Country website warns, don’t try to go any further - turn around and retrace your steps: “Beyond the viewpoint there is a sheer cliff face and a death trap drop with no return.” (Here’s an example of the consequences.)

Trip: Roberts Point Track, Franz Josef Glacier. Grade: Moderate. Time: 5 hours return; must retrace steps. Features: Historic hut, hanging gallery to terrify yourself with, best glacier view from the valley, several swingbridges. More on the DoC description.