Red Tarns Track - Aoraki / Mount Cook

RED TARNS TRACK

The Long Way Around - BEAR’s Guide to New Zealand’s South Island

DISTANCE : 4km return (300m elevation)

TIME : 2 hours return

GRADE : easy/moderate

TRACK TYPE : gravel, stairs, alpine trail

WHEN BEAR WAS THERE: August, 2025

Red Tarns Track gets its name from the red pond weed that resides in the tarn - a detail that you won’t fully appreciate until you see it!

If Sealy Tarns has been sitting on your “maybe” list but your legs (or confidence) aren’t quite convinced, Red Tarns is a perfect litmus test. It climbs to roughly half the height, offering a satisfying challenge without the full commitment that Sealy Tarns demands. If time and energy allow, do both - they deliver completely different experiences.

The track starts at the public shelter on Bowen Drive in Aoraki/Mount Cook Village. Once you cross the bridge at the beginning of the trail, the climb begins immediately. The track switches between well-maintained gravel path, and steps. It is quite steep, and consistently uphill (as mountains are) but it’s broken up with stretches of flat-ish gravel - just enough to keep morale intact. These stretches were affectionately referred to as “seven seconds of heaven”.

For the first half, the view doesn’t change dramatically - turn around often though, because that’s where the payoff is. Then, as you climb higher, the landscape opens up and the surrounding mountains begin to show off. Once you reach the bench seat, the hard work is behind you. From there, it’s a gentle wander across flat gravel toward the tarns.

At the top, the views of the orangey-green shrubbery was a welcome change after all the ice and rock we had seen the previous day. We were blessed with a sunny day, and spent our time at the top throwing tiny pebbles onto partially frozen tarns and listening to the sci-fi laser sound that it made (yes we are children). We learned later that this sound is called Acoustic Dispersion, where the impact of a rock creates a bending wave in the ice that causes high frequency sounds to ‘outrun’ low frequency sounds - hence the high-pitched ‘chirping’ you hear!

Red Tarns Track was less busy than Sealy Tarns, although both were reasonably quiet, we only saw two people at the top. We ate our soggy salad rolls and more Whittaker’s choccie.

Liam and I have a self-imposed tradition: beating the “recommended time” for a hike. After extended playtime at the top, we had to hightail it down the mountain - a term which we aptly named “goat mode”. Goat mode starts at the top of the mountain and lasts as long as it can without making a catastrophic misstep. You move as fast as you can, no matter the terrain. It’s essentially trail sprinting - something that the people of TikTok were quick to tell me is ‘dangerous’ and ‘bad for my knees’ (probably true).

We made it to the bottom with five minutes to left to spare - a win.

Stray beautiful,

BEAR.

No robots were involved in the making of this journal.