Fifteen minutes, and an honest limit
Three hundred steps up an old moraine wall at the end of Tasman Valley Road put you on a viewpoint above Tasman Lake, looking at the end of the longest glacier in New Zealand. It takes about fifteen minutes, it costs nothing, and it is the walk that tells you most about what is happening in this valley — because the lake you are looking at did not exist when your parents were young.
Quick answer
The short answer. Free, 300-plus steps, about fifteen minutes up. Add the Blue Lakes side trip — 500 metres and five minutes. What you get is a view across Tasman Lake to the grey, debris-covered end of the glacier. What you do not get is the ice itself: that is a heli hike from $497.
What you are looking at
Two walks, fifteen minutes, and the clearest lesson in the park about what is actually happening to it.
Stand at the viewpoint and the first thing that strikes people is that the glacier does not look like a glacier. The lower Tasman carries so much rock debris on its surface that from here it reads as a grey gravel field with a wall at the end of it.
The second thing is the lake, and the lake is the story. In the early 1970s there were a few small meltwater ponds sitting on the lower ice. By 1990 they had merged into a single body of water. By 2008 Tasman Lake was around seven kilometres long, two kilometres wide and two hundred and forty-five metres deep, and it had nearly doubled in area since 2000.
The glacier behind it held a length of about twenty-eight kilometres for the whole of the twentieth century without moving much at all, and is now 23.5 kilometres. Everything between those two numbers is the water in front of you.
The Blue Lakes, five minutes away, make the same point more quietly. They were fed by rock flour from the glacier and were genuinely milky blue. The ice has retreated out of reach of them, the flour stopped coming, and they are green now.
Getting there
The road is the part people get wrong, not the walk.
Leaving Aoraki / Mount Cook Village on SH80 towards Twizel, it is the second turn on your left. From there, cross the one-way bridge and continue to the end of the road.
The Hooker Valley, Kea Point and Sealy Tarns all start at White Horse Hill on the other side of the village. This one does not. Budget the drive.
Not a hard climb, but it is stairs rather than a path, and they are exposed. In wind this is a colder fifteen minutes than the number suggests.
Five minutes from the same car park, and it gives the retreat story its second half.
Operators run small boats among the icebergs on Tasman Lake. That is not a walk and it is not a heli hike — it is a third product, and it gets you close to floating ice rather than onto the glacier.
If the view from across the water is not enough, this is the only way onto the ice.
The Tasman Glacier heli hike→Book direct
One walk on the ice and two flights over it.
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Common questions
About fifteen minutes up: DOC describes it as ten minutes of steady steps and another five to the viewpoint, over 300-plus steps in total. The Blue Lakes side trip is 500 metres and about five minutes.
You can drive Tasman Valley Road to the car park at the end and walk fifteen minutes to a viewpoint above Tasman Lake. You cannot drive to the ice, and there is no track around the lake to it.
No. The glacier ends in Tasman Lake, which by 2008 was about seven kilometres long and 245 metres deep. There is no route around or across it. Guided time on the ice starts with a helicopter and costs from $497.
They were fed by meltwater carrying fine rock flour from the glacier, which is what makes glacial water that milky blue. The Tasman has retreated out of reach of them, the supply stopped, and algae took over.
Yes, with the caveat that it is 300-plus steps and exposed to the wind. It is short enough that most families manage it easily, and the icebergs on the lake do the rest.
No. Like every day track in the park it is free, with no permit and no booking. The only thing to check is the highway: DOC warns that snow can close SH80.
Go deeper
Six marked tracks from the village, with real DOC times and distances.
On the iceThe only walk on the longest glacier in New Zealand, and what the three hours contain.
The famous oneTen kilometres return, three swing bridges, a lake full of icebergs, and it is free.
The hard one2,200 steps and 600 metres of climb, and where the walking stops and mountaineering starts.
PricesThree heli hikes priced against the flights and against the walks that cost nothing.
VerdictWhich glacier to walk on, decided on ice time, group size and what is included.
3-Hour Tasman Glacier Heli Hike
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