Alan Danby and Britt Walker are currently 4,000 kilometers into a five-month adventure through New Zealand, riding the best trails, seeing the sights, and trying to find some waves along the coast to surf. They have had many chance encounters along the way so far, and one such interaction at a little campsite in Abel Tasman led the two of them to a great trip up into Mount Aspiring to stay at Liverpool Hut and Aspiring Hut.
It’s inevitable on long bike tours that you’ll bump into many interesting folk along the way with inspiring stories, recommendations, and just good nattering.
We met a lovely fellow named Pete from Belgium who had been living in New Zealand for four years after falling in love with the place on a short holiday. We shortly discovered that his main passion and reason for staying in NZ was his joy of hiking and hut bagging. We could have talked for hours about all the amazing adventures he’d had to some of the most remote huts across the country. We were amazed when he told us he had visited over 650 huts in his short time here. He was keen to share his knowledge and happy to help give us some hut recommendations where we could cycle our bikes into to stay. One of his tips was to head up to Aspiring Hut in the Mount Aspiring National Park, and so we took his advice and made sure to visit once we made it to Wanaka.
Once we got to Wanaka we decided to take a few days out from riding along our route to make sure to explore this beautiful area of New Zealand. We purchased some hiking shoes from a charity shop and borrowed a backpack from a friend, to get us ready for some hiking and hut bagging. We rode 60km from Wanaka up into Aspiring National Park. The last 30 km was along a stunning gravel road with some awful washboard, but the views of the glaciers and mountains on the distance kept us feeling excited for the adventure ahead.
After the road finished, a lovely piece of single track lay ahead of us and we set off for our first detour, Rob Roy Glacier. We took off our cycling shoes and popped on our new hiking shoes. As we made it to the glaciers, it was just mind blowing – the view made us feel oh so small as we stared up at the multiple waterfalls and vast glaciers sitting above them. We picked our jaws off the floor and jumped back on our bikes and headed up to Aspiring Hut as the sun started to set. The rays shone down into the valley and the moon slowly rose above the peaks in the distance.
We settled into the hut, tucked into satay tuna and noodles and listened to some stories from fellow hikers and bikers. Whilst munching away we met a very friendly hut warden named Noah, who was based in the valley. He informed us that he could try and get us a spot in the Liverpool Hut for the following day, so we could continue our hut bagging adventure.
We woke up with good news that Noah had bagged us a spot in the hut. So we packed our things up, put our hiking shoes on, and hid our bikes from the peaky Keas. Keas are very inquisitive and smart birds, who love nothing more than have a good nibble on your bike seat or popping your tyres. With our bikes in a safe place, we headed up the valley with Liverpool Hut in the distance. As we set off the clouds cleared and the sun popped out, giving us great views of Mount Aspiring and Mount Barff. The climb up to Liverpool Hut was steep and technical with lots of roots and rocks to clamber over, but we loved it and it felt good to have a new challenge.
We made it to the hut by mid-afternoon and had some sweet views up and down the valley, with the peaks and glaciers glimmering in the sun. We settled in and enjoyed the views and company of the fellow hut dwellers for the night. The people we met up at the hut really helped make this a special and memorable experience and we felt really grateful to have shared this trip with them.
On day three we packed up our bags and headed back down to our bikes at Aspiring Hut. The morning was misty and cloudy and it felt quite magical wandering down into the forest as it cleared. We got back to Aspiring Hut as the sun popped out and collected our bikes, which had luckily stayed safe from the Keas. We enjoyed some lunch with some fellow hut baggers and then rode down the valley and back to Wanaka.
We’ve really enjoyed seeing more of New Zealand via staying in some awesome little huts in the back country. We’re heading south now down to Bluff, the southernmost point in NZ, to tick off our north-to-south ride. As we still have some time here, we’ll be aiming to head back up and along the east of the South Island along the Sounds to Sound route, where we’ll hopefully find some more huts to bag and enjoy the night.
Alan Danby and Britt Walker would like to give a big thanks to Restrap for supporting them on this trip!