Day 103 - French Ridge Hut

It’s alternate time bby. This time I’m going wayy off course. The normal route takes walkers from Wanaka straight to Queenstown via similar terrain I’ve been doing for the last couple stretches. From Queenstown the official TA route stops, then picks up again 30km as the crow flies at the greenstone track. The road inbetween is too dangerous to walk, and is not apart of the trail. However, there is a route that allows one to walk from near Wanaka much closer to this point where the TA picks up after Queenstown; making a much cleaner looking line. But the main reason I want to do it is because it takes me into Mt. Aspiring National park. One of the faults of the TA is that it does not take walkers close to the big rocky Mountains. Understandable, in most cases, because of the difficulty of getting a continuous North South trail in that terrain. However, this section does have a good route through it, and it avoids the Queenstown teleport section, so why it’s not the official route is beyond me. Most walkers still elect to take the official route. Lame. I’m going on the alternative. 

I decided to hitch to the start of the trails mostly because of the weather window looks good now. I’d rather not be in the high alpine during storms coming later on in the week. I’ll be putting in extra kms anyway so I’m not concerned about lost kms. After three hitches, one with a lovely Colorado couple, I made it to Mt. Aspiring National Park. 

11am photo starting the track. There is a very popular day hike to Roy’s Glacier here. I don’t think I’ve hiked near so many people in all of NZ.

Good to see some snowy mountains. 

Sooo I’m actually doing a side detour off my already alternate route. I’ll be going up to French Ridge Hut, an alpine hut up near the glaciers. The only reason I’m going to French hut is because of a watercolour painting a girl I met did of the hut. It was such a cool painting I figured I have to go there myself, and since I’m in the area I figured Id stop by. 

It was an extremely steep climb up. Over 1km elevation gain in just 3km. A track that tested my climbing skills more than my hiking skills. A nice Southern Island Robin joined me on a break. 

After a gruelling 3hr climb I made it to the toilet. Always appreciate a good toilet. 

And the hut of course. 

I scrambled up a bit higher to gain a better view of the area. Glaciers surrounded me 360°. Absolutely stunning. 

I had the hut all to myself. There’s a bridge repair going on to get to the hut that’s scaring most people off I think. Just me and the Keas, and I finally got a good photo of one.