Richmond Trail, Lake Tekapo

Grade: Easy (I walked it with 11-year-old nephew)
Length: 13km
Time: 4 hrs, 15 mins, which included lots of photo and scoggin stops, and a leisurely lunch
Getting to the start of the walk: You can walk in either direction. If you're cunning, drive to the Round Hill end of the trail and then you walk across and down - rather than up and across. Drive up the right-hand side of Lake Tekapo. After about 15km, you drive over a bridge, then immediately over a cattle stop. On the right is a DOC sign indicating one end of the trial. You can either start there, or keep driving. If you keep driving, turn right into the Round Hill Skifield Road. Drive until you are 2km short of the skifield, then you will see another DOC sign on your right. Be aware it is a shingle road.
Transport tips: You could walk to one end and back in one day, but it would be a pretty long day. Ideally, get someone to drop you and pick you up. Or - if it's the ski season and the field is open - you could realistically catch a ride up the road and back, if you timed it to catch the skifield traffic.
Would you do it again: Absolutely.
DOC/other information about walk: It was a struggle to find out much about the walk beforehand - even from the Information Centre in Tekapo.
Author: Febbett
Month/year walked: September 2009


Favourite Nephew and I have been doing quite a bit of tramping of late. He's 11 and my philosophy is that it needs to be 90% fun and 10% challenge. That means plenty of gum snakes and chocolate in the scroggin, not tackling walks that are too hard or hilly, lots of photos, and a billy boil up at lunchtime.

Mother had heard of a "day walk" near Round Hill, so we decided it would be our next adventure. Despite considerable effort, trying to find out about the trail before we set off, we found nothing. Even the Tekapo Information Centre was light on facts. So we just got on with it.

I have to admit that, as we passed the first DOC sign indicating the start/end of the trail, it seemed an awful long drive until we reached the second sign, which was basically right at the skifield. I did wonder if we might have bitten off more than we could chew. But it was a sunny day, we had loads of water and food, and turning around only to drive back to Tekapo seemed a complete cop out.

We needn't have worried. It was a magic day. We blitzed the 13 km in just over four hours and saw countryside like we'd never seen before. Tarns, glimpses of the glorious blue lake over snowy crests, views over our shoulder of the skifield lifts making their calm journey up the hill.

Essentially, the trail hugged the base of the mountains for most of the day, then - with about a third of the walk to go - it swung right and headed down towards the road and lake. You could envisage bullock wagons using the trail a century ago - and the four-wheel drive tracks indicated that it still saw tyre action these days.

Lunch was an event in itself. Fav Nef had spotted an inviting big rock at the top of a hill and it was decided - that was the perfect spot for lunch. And it was. Noodles out of a pot, sitting on top of a massive rock - does life get any better if you're 11?

We surprised ourselves and the obliging grandparents/taxi service by making such a good time. We even had to throw rocks in the river for half an hour until pick-up time rolled around, waving to the skiers as they made their weary drive home. They might have felt pretty pleased with themselves, but not as pleased as us.