Join us for a 7 day wilderness trek in the majestic Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks. 

Skirting the edge of the Olivine wilderness area, this trek involves navigation challenges and is a true wilderness experience. Our adventure begins briefly on the country’s most popular walking track, the Routeburn (ironically enough).

• Routeburn to Theatre Flat: 11 km or 5-6 hours
• Theatre Flat to Park Pass: 7 km or 3-4 hours
• Park Pass to Cow Saddle: 7 km or 3-4 hours
• Cow Saddle to Fohn Lakes via Fiery Col: 5km or 3 hours
• Beans Burn rock bivvy to Dart River: 13 km or 5-6 hours
• Dart River to Routeburn Road via Lake Sylvan: 13 km or 5-6 hours
  
   Click here for a great story by Phil Melchior and photos

Logistics

*Inclusions; Guide and permit fees, group camping equipment, all trip related meals and energy foods, ground transfers ex-Wanaka and 12.5% NZ Goods and Services tax.

Day 1
We meet at the Aspiring Guides office in Wanaka (level 1, 99 Ardmore St) at 8:30 am where you are welcomed by your guides. Equipment is reviewed and final preparations are made. We depart Wanaka and drive up to Glenorchy, and sign in with the Department of Conservation. Day walk to Lake Sylvan and return via logging track. Camp at Lake Sylvan roadend.

Day 2
Shuttle to Routeburn roadend. Walk over Sugarloaf Pass to Rock Burn river. Up 650m to Sugarloaf Pass (our first pass). We emerge from the mixed Beech forest about 150m below the pass and out onto sometimes boggy tussock. As we climb the last few metres to the Pass at 1154m, we take a last backwards look at Lake Wakatipu, Mt. Earnslaw, the Rock Burn and Dart River flats. The bird life here is the most prolific of the trip. The icing on the cake comes when we stop at a small but perfectly formed campsite about an hour short of Theatre Flat.

Day 3
Theatre flat. We walk easily up the Rock Burn, over a spur and down onto the wide open spaces of Theatre Flat. As we leave the flat, the route heads inland between steep bluffs on our left and a bare schist face on our right. More flats, lunch by the Rock Burn, before another steep climb brings us up to the tarn at Park Pass at 1176m. We're now on the Main Divide. The Rock Burn drains east into the Dart, but Hidden Falls Creek, miles below us in its dark, steep-sided valley, will end up as part of the Hollyford. The views are vast. Behind us, we can see all the way back to Sugarloaf Pass, ahead through to the imposing snow-clad bulk of Mt Tutoko, Fiordland's highest at 2723m. What goes up always goes down, and we scramble down steepish tussock to the bushline, where the entry - for the sharp-eyed - is marked by a scrap of orange tape. It's a very steep drop of around 400m to the creek, flattening out into riverside stands of skinny, primeval Silver Beeches draped with moss. Another hour of serious boulder-hopping up the true left of Hidden Falls Creek and we decide on a grassy campsite, with a bivvy rock (for one) and a nice stand of Beeches. Forest Beech is never the world's finest firewood and on the damp west of the Main Divide, it takes a serious effort to get the fire burning consistently. Camp up stream 1km.

Day 4
We start with a brief stretch of bush-bashing before reverting to boulder-hopping up the river until the valley widens in the run up to Cow Saddle. A family of Keas looks interested and follows us for a stretch as we cross a well-cairned scree slope en route to one of the most extraordinary geological features of the trip. Cow Pass is the outlyer for the red, rusting ultramafic rock which characterizes the Red Hills and Olivine Ranges, and it offers a dramatic contrast between the grey scree on one side of the creek, and the vivid orange red on the other. Cow Saddle is bovine. Lumpy, wide, dotted with tarns, it's the least dramatic of the passes we'll cross. Down the other side, we stop for lunch as the sun struggles to come out and large chunks of blue sky appear to the south. Fiery Col, deep in snow, looms 530m metres above us and we climb towards it, eating up the vertical on steep but easy terrain. A narrow gut is still choked with snow but we emerge onto big slabs of ultramafic rock which has a sandpaper-like surface which provides perfect non-slip grip. A plateau just before the last push to the Col provides a perfect spot to relax and pick our route. By now the sun has triumphed and the views of Tutoko are magnificent. Traverse across a snowy face, and then climb steeply, kicking steps, to the Col itself. Again, a new world opens up. The snow sits only on the south side of the Col. The North face is clear. As we get lower, the contrast is extraordinary between the lifeless ultramafic moonscape on our left, and the profusion of flowers, Mt Cook buttercups blooming late after the cold early summer, white and yellow Margarites, and many others. A waterfall provides a perfect place to strip off and cool down, drying off in the sun amongst the flowers. A steep climb and delicate traverse through the snow grass brings us on to the Olivine Ledge above the Fiery Creek gorge, and a camp site high on the ledge amongst tarns deep enough to bathe in but shallow enough to have been warmed by the sun. At just above 1200m, we can see the edge of the legendary Olivine Ice Plateau.

Day 5
We make an ascent up Fohn Creek to Fohn Saddle. Another steady climb up through the tussock, past the turnoff to Fohn Saddle and straight up above a gorge to emerge without warning, above the stunningly beautiful Fohn Lakes. This is perfection. A campsite just above the main lake, an iceberg as a swimming platform, too high for sandflies, and a reflection so pure it's hard to tell up from down. The plan is to go as far as the rock bivvy on the Beans Burn (rock bivvies are natural huts). We head around the lake, across the outlet neck and sidle round just below the 1500m contour, above a series of rock bluffs, dropping into Fohn Saddle about halfway through. Lunch in the shade, looking down Beans Burn. The 500m descent through snow tussock starts reasonably enough but gets steeper and steeper. Even in perfect weather it needs concentration to pick a route which avoids the bluffs and keep your footing on the silk-slippery tussock. In rain or snow, it would be a serious undertaking. Down the valley, through lumpy tussock, sticking close to the edge of the river and occasionally taking to the water to minimize the need for bush-bashing. There's the odd cairn - the first we've seen for a couple of days - but no-one could miss Bivvy Rock, a collection of house-sized boulders covering an amazing selection of passages and caves. But with such perfect weather, who wants to sleep in a cave?

Day 6
We head off down the true right of the pretty Beans Burn, the route is generally fairly obvious and we make good early progress. We have a late lunch not far from the flat which marks the start of the lower river where it becomes squeezed into a steep-sided valley. We cross the rickety swing bridge to the true left of the river and 30 minutes later we emerge into the waning sun and wide, open spaces of the braided Dart. Camp here.

Day 7
Down the Dart River to Rock Burn hut via Lake Sylvan to roadend.