The Roy’s Peak hike is located in the Otago region of the South Island, a 10 minute drive from Wanaka. It is one of the most popular hikes to do in New Zealand due to its breathtaking views of Lake Wanaka and Mount Aspiring. It is a 16km return hike to the summit, with a total of 1250m of elevation. If you don’t feel like walking to the summit, it is 13km hike to the lookout.
We completed this hike at the beginning of February and were apprehensive to do so. Although my friend and I both have reasonable levels of fitness, we are not experienced hikers in the least! Also, everything we had read had described how hard it was so we were slightly worried! If you are feeling the same then i hope this post will make you feel better 🙂
The hike is closed between annually from October 1 to November 10 for lambing season. During this closure, it is illegal to walk the track, and violators may face fines. Other seasonal closures can occur due to snow/ice, make sure to check the DOC site before you go.
Packing List for the Roy’s Peak Hike:
- Rucksack to carry everything
- About 1 and a half litres of water per person
- Camera
- Torches
- Lots of snacks
- Jumper
- Headphones
- Lots of layers for the summit! I did not bring nearly enough and it is very cold. I wish I’d at least bought a hat and pair of gloves!
Arrival and Parking:
When we did the Roy’s Peak Hike, the sun was rising at 6:30am so we aimed to reach the summit for 6am. Therefore, we awoke at 2am and got ready, then drove 10 minutes to the Roys Peak Hike car park.
The large car park fills up quickly, even in the early hours of the morning. There is a donation box where they request $5 for maintenance of the trail. We started walking at 2:45am and on reflection think this was a good time, if not a little too early. If you are also of reasonable fitness but not hugely experienced hikers, then a good estimate is to start walking about 3 hours before you want to reach the summit.
Start of the Hike: Kilometre 1 & 2
The first kilometre of the Roy’s Peak Hike is actually the steepest of the whole hike. It has over 200m of elevation gain which really doesn’t ease you in gently at all! It is easy to feel demoralised quite quickly but it does get easier i promise! I remember looking at my apple watch that was tracking our walk, thinking we must have done a kilometre by now… and we’d only done 386m!
The start of the second kilometre remained quite steep but then became a bit flatter. We quickly realised we were unable to talk to each other as we were too breathless! So we listened to an audiobook together instead which was really helpful.
Kilometre 3 & 4:
Kilometre 3 was our fastest of all kilometres on the way up! It levelled out and had lots of flat sections, which was a relief after the first two. We were having breaks every 500m-1km and eating lots of snacks to keep our morale high. It was fun to see the torch lights of everybody on the way up behind us to make us see how far we’d come already!
The first few hundred metres of kilometre 4 was really steep but after that was also pretty flat and our second fastest of the ascent. We began to forget about the steepness of the first two kilometres and wonder what everyone was making a fuss about!
We realised quickly that it wasn’t worth paying attention to how quickly everyone else was doing it. Some people went so fast they practically jogged it! Others kept walking really quickly and overtaking us, then having breaks after literally 200m so we overtook them again, and this played on repeat! We wondered why they didn’t just go a little slower and it would be more sustainable… but who are we to judge?!
Kilometre 5 & 6:
It was great at the end of kilometre 4 to know you had reached half way and had a good chunk behind you. However, sadly the beginning of kilometre 5 was where it definitely started to get tricky again and live up to its difficult reputation. It started to get quite steep and we’d already been walking for an hour and a half so we were starting to get tired. I think i ate about half a pack of oreos during this time to give me a boost!
The start of kilometre 6 was more of the same and the walk began to feel like it was going on forever! However, at the 6.5km mark you reach the famous Roy’s Peak lookout which was a great morale boost. It was 5:10am when we got there, and originally we were going to finish here. However, we had been quicker than we previously thought so decided to continue to the summit!
End of the Walk – Kilometre 7 & 8
The last 2 kilometres are very steep and overall just really hard work to be honest! The seventh especially feels like a slog as you just want to reach the end. The sun is starting to rise though, and you can see a glimmer of light over the horizon.
We made the final kilometre a lot harder for ourselves as we accidentally went the wrong way and chose a much steeper path than we could have! We didn’t realise this until we were coming back down a much easier route than we came up. Make sure you take the route that curves round to the right instead of the extremely steep one that goes straight up. It is very hard to see as it still almost pitch dark but the path shouldn’t be practically vertical.
The Summit of Roy’s Peak:
It is such a relief to reach the summit and finally sit down after over 3 hours of walking. We got there just before 6am when the sun was starting to come up. There were a lot of people already there so we found space between them to watch the sun rise. We were so happy and relieved to have done the hardest part of the Roy’s Peak Hike!
We quickly cooled down and realised how cold the summit was, and put all our extra layers on. Even on a summers day, at sun rise it is only about 1°C (33.8°F) and I cannot emphasise enough how cold it was! I was wearing just shorts and a t-shirt to do the walk and put on a hoodie, coat and trousers and was still freezing. I wish I’d bought a hat, another jumper and a pair of gloves as my fingers went completely numb. A lot of people around us were feeling the same and grumbling about how cold it was.
Everyone was taking photos and having snacks and were very happy when the sun finally rose at 6:30am and it got a tiny bit warmer. The views were absolutely mesmerising and made the effort of the climb to get there worth it! We watched until 7am when I was too cold to stay put any longer and we started the climb down.
The Descent:
To the lookout:
Funnily enough, the descent was far quicker and it took us just over 2 hours in total compared to over 3 hours on the way up. This does not mean it was lots easier though – it came with a new set of difficulties! It took us 30 minutes to get down to the Roy’s Peak lookout and the views were gorgeous on the way there.
We stopped for about 20 minutes at the lookout to take some photos and admire the views, and there is also a toilet here. It would be gorgeous to watch sunrise from there, but I would personally say it is definitely worth the extra effort to get to the summit.
To The End:
To be honest a lot of the descent was a bit of a blur! We were very tired and hungry by this point and had both gone very mute. Walking downhill for so long began to hurt our knees and you begin to want to walk uphill again just for something different, which is something I never thought I’d say! Most of our kilometres downhill took about 15 minutes so it was a lot faster-paced than the way up.
I was grateful that we had done the ascent in the dark so I couldn’t see how much longer we’d have to go. I honestly think I would have given up before we’d even started! It was nice to really appreciate the views of Wanaka and Mount Aspiring on the way down too.
When you have about 3 kilometres left you start to see the car park getting closer and closer which is very motivating. The last few kilometres also have lots of short-cuts through the middle of the path which is great! We got back to our car just after 9am after doing 25,000 steps overnight – very odd.
Conclusions and Main Recommendations:
- The Roy’s Peak Hike is HARD but so worth it – it feels so satisfying to reach the top and see how far you have come, you forget about 3 hours of pain for a truly gorgeous view.
- It really is a hike for anyone, if you have lower levels of fitness then just get up a bit earlier and do it slowly and take lots of breaks. For us, social media had dramatised how tricky it was and made us more anxious than we would have been, it was tiring but definitely very do-able for most people.
- Hike all the way to the summit – not just to the lookout, the extra few hundred metres of elevation are so worth the better view.
- I would definitely recommend doing the Roy’s Peak Hike at sunrise. It is horrible when that alarm goes off but nice to do the walk before it gets hot, and to see the beginning of the day on top of a mountain.
- If you’re doing the walk with someone then bring AirPods so you can listen to music/podcasts/audiobooks together
- Bring lots of layers for the top and lots of snacks – it is freezing and you will thank yourself for carrying them up with you.
- Bring lots of snacks – it really gave us a boost when we were feeling particularly tired.
Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, please have a look at others I have written below:
Guides to the following places, including general information, top recommendations and camping information:
Everything you need to know before doing these hikes:
Robert’s Point Track in Franz Josef
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