Mt Aspiring National Park has some fantastic hiking and the Gillespie Pass or Young Wilkin, as it’s also known, is one of its best. It features a mountain pass, a stunning side trip to an iceberg lake and a hair-raising ride down the Wilkin River in a Hamilton jet boat.
Why we love the Gillespie Pass
- Fantastic side trip to Lake Crucible
- A hair-raising jet boat ride (optional)
- Stunning scenery every day
- Camp in the lush beautiful Siberia Valley
- Less busy than the New Zealand Great Walks
- Easy organising logistics
- Four days, three nights
Mt Aspiring National Park
There are two very distinct types of treks in New Zealand. The awesome Great Walks (there are nine of them) and backcountry treks (there are hundreds of these scattered around the country including the Gillespie Pass circuit). On the Great Walks you are unlikely to struggle through a fast-moving river crossing or have to scour a misty landscape trying to pick out the next marker post. It’s also possible that you and a friend on a Great Walk, can stroll and speak and not have to put too much thought into your next foothold.
Hiking a lot of backcountry terrain in New Zealand is often mentally as well as physically exhausting. However on the flip side, you find that you are immersed more in the wilderness, the solitude at times is both eerie and beautiful. There’s unlikely to be cell phone reception and DOC (Department of Conservation) walking recommendations feel like they are on the optimistic side. Chances are you might even have a hut or a bivvy completely to yourselves. The Gillespie Pass or the Young Wilkin in Mt Aspiring National Park is a multi-night adventure with all the above thrown in – but with aeroplanes, helicopters, jet boats and an iceberg lake. 
Makarora
The action starts in the quiet Otago outpost of Makarora. Drive time from Queenstown (approx. 2 hours) or from Haast (approx. 1 hour). The pub, restaurant, visitors centre and accommodation is all neatly wrapped into the Makarora Tourist Centre. This is your start and end point with chalet and camping options and there is the DOC office right next door to pay for hut tickets. We buy the 6 month or yearly DOC backcountry hut pass which works out cheaper and easier if you are doing several treks in the summer season or across the whole year. Buses do go through here but in our case it was more cost efficient to rent cheap wheels from Queenstown.
Parking
Driving to a backcountry walk in New Zealand often comes with a lot of logistical problems as your in and out points are different so either you have to catch a shuttle back to your vehicle, hitch a ride OR take two cars and ferry people back and forth. NOT on this walk. Hassle factor is zero. We parked our car in a field near the airstrip and across the road from the visitor centre for the duration of our trek. There is a donation box there so if you can, sling in some coins.
Food & Drink
Pick up supplies for your multi-day trek in either Queenstown, Wanaka or on the West Coast. The visitor centre has some snacks but do not rely on it to buy food for your camping trek. We ate our pre and post trek meals at the restaurant and gorged ourselves on an all you can eat buffet they had going. There is another cafe further down the road towards Wanaka – the Makarora Country Cafe – which at the time of writing is up for sale and has camping options there too.
The Gillespie Pass (Four Days, Three Nights)
This description is starting at the junction of the Young and Makarora Rivers and walking in a circuit anti-clockwise. After you have parked your car, there is a 3km stretch of road on SH6 to get to the gate where you access the rivers. You can hitch or draw straws and get one of your party to drop off the group plus bags and hike or hitch back. You will find all you need to know about the walk and current alerts on the DOC website.
Day 1 Gillespie Pass
Makarora – Young Hut (approx. 6 hours)
It starts with a brisk crossing of the Makarora River. We were lucky with a very shallow river during a hot dry summer but you still have to be very careful crossing. We chose our spot in order to end up on the true left of the Young River to begin the hike. From there in dazzling sunshine the walk started out fairly flat till Young Forks where your pack starts to make its mark on a steep climb. A sweaty and at times boggy push up the hill to Young Hut winds up your day at around six hours of hiking. We took a little longer with a lengthy lunch stop before the hill. The hut has 20 bunks and a wood burner and it was full being the holiday period , so a few hikers had to camp down the front on a section of grass.
Day 2 Gillespie Pass
Young Hut – Siberia Valley (approx. 6.5 hours)
From Young Hut you are heading up struggle street to the Gillespie Pass. This is a steep climb (Fitbit showed I did around 40,000 steps and 250 floors that day) but the views are spectacular once you hit the plateau on the top with Mt Awful the dominant view behind you. Our party spent a bit of time taking pictures and enjoying a long lunch before we introduced Jo from Perth to snow. We crossed some small patches on our way down the hill towards the Siberia Valley. Downhill is often more unpleasant that the strain of going up and we hit rain on our way making the trip a bit slower. It was still a six-hour plus hiking day when we got to the Gillespie Stream in pouring rain down in the valley. We opted to camp here on the flat grass at the bottom of the hill. This was to save time on the run up to Lake Crucible the next day (otherwise you have to backtrack) and it’s a picturesque and quiet valley to camp. If you don’t have a tent then keep going downstream for approximately an hour to Siberia Hut.
Day 3 Gillespie Pass
Siberia Valley – Lake Crucible – Siberia Hut (approx. 6.5 hours)
This is my favourite day on a backcountry walk ever. After a night of rain we woke up to a beautiful summers day in the valley and left our tents to dry with our packs inside. Carrying just a collapsible cup to dip into the rivers for water and some food our group worked its way across the valley, crossing the Siberia River to find the steep track which takes you up to Lake Crucible. As you work your way up to the lip and take those first few steps over the top it is a breathtaking view of the lake. In December, as I am sure is often the case, it’s full of icebergs which have broken off from the glacier Mt Alba and float on the lake enclosed by dramatic walls . It’s a lunch stop like no other. A few hardy souls throw themselves in the lake or iceberg hop. We hightailed it back to our camping spot, braved the sandflies and packed up our tents then it was only a leisurely hour stroll with packs to Siberia Hut for New Years Eve.
After a hot day hiking definitely grab your togs and towel and head out behind the Siberia Hut to the small waterfall and pool where you can cool off. There are 20 bunks at Siberia Hut but ample ground nearby for tents (with some picnic tables too) and if it’s a clear night you won’t want to miss the star-gazing opportunities.
Day 4 Gillespie Pass
Siberia Hut to Kerin Forks Hut (approx. 3.5 hours. Jet boat to Makarora 50 mins)
What a great way to end a multi-day trek because instead of plodding the last few hours on foot, you get the chance to take a jet boat. In fine weather the Siberia Valley is a constant buzz of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft coming in and dropping off day tourists.
They come for the ‘Siberia Experience’ – a day trip where you either fly in and walk/jet boat out or vice versa with just a 2-3 hour hike from Siberia Hut. We were a little dusty on New Years Day (packed a cask bladder of red wine) so were in no rush as we had a 1pm booking on the jet boat. The three-hour hike winds its way steadily uphill then sharply drops down through forest to the Wilkin River. Kerin Forks Hut is across the river but we waited on a nearby beach for our jet boat, which is popular spot to take a dip in the river. A seat in the jet boat costs around $110NZ (adult) for the 50 minute ride back to Makarora with Wilkin River Jets.
It’s a lot of fun – the drivers pull 360s as they twist and turn quickly across very narrow water down the river. The boat ends up right back at the spot where your car is parked. Of course you can bypass this option and carry on walking from Kerin Forks Hut to Makarora in around 6 hours and you will need to cross the river to get back to the tourist centre.
Find out my 5 packing essentials I take on New Zealand multi-day hikes.
