A very scenic out-and-back trip in Aspiring National Park. With options for beginners, experts and bike rafters, this river flows, through farmland, beech forest and huge Otago peaks.

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Getting to Raspberry Creek carpark

The car park is about an hour’s drive from Wanaka and crosses about 9 fords. If the river is in reasonable paddling flows, these are usually fine for standard vehicles. This road is the gateway to the valley, and several popular tourist hikes. Expect to see rental cars and vans parked on the town side of the fords, afraid to drive through… You’ll be fine though (especially if you get out and inspect the ford first)

Options overview

There’s three main sections upstream of the Raspberry Flat carpark. Described from upper to lower, they are:

• Shovel Flat to Aspiring Hut (IV) – a full day round trip from the car park.
• Aspiring Hut to Rob Roy Stream (I/II) a medium day return, great for beginners
• Rob Roy Stream to Rasperry Creek (IV), aka “the swingbridge” section. A short and continuous section close to the road.

Shovel Flat to Aspiring Hut (IV)

Head all the way up to Shovel flat (3-4hrs) and paddle the top gorge.

The river descends through a tighter section with class IV drops, seives and some portages until just above Aspiring Hut, when it becomes grade II.

See the video below from the team at Packrafting Queenstown (guided trips, gear hire, instruction, gear sales) which shows the upper gorge. The flow was 55 cumecs, and they reported that it “could do with a bit more water”.

Aspiring Hut to Rob Roy Stream (I/II)

Bike rafting friendly!

The approach from Raspberry Creek Carpark to Aspiring Hut, is a 4WD track. This is often cycled by mountaineers, so would make a great spot for some easy bike rafting.

Put on near Aspiring Hut to enjoy lots of long flat stretches and some small wave trains. There’s a couple of small class II rapids in there as well.

You’ll want a bit more than the 40 cumec mean flows, otherwise you’ll be scraping a fair bit.

Take out before Rob Roy stream to avoid the grade IV section by the swingbridge.. (If you’re a grade II paddler, you should be scouting the take out before you start to avoid any unpleasant surprises)

Thanks to Dan Clearwater for the pics from the grade II walk in option (below)

Rob Roy Stream to Rasperry Creek (IV), aka’The Swing bridge’ section

From Raspberry Flat, follow your nose up the track and put on above the swingbridge. Needs a little bit of water to be runable, so find other places to get your groove on when things are super dry.

Check out the video below from Mark Oates. It shows the upper gorge (IV), then also the swingbridge section from 1:50 onwards.

Jetboats

Be aware that Wanaka River Journeys (as well as recreational jet boaters) regularly operate on the Matukituki River. These jet boats have legal authorisation to boat up the West Branch to the National Park Boundary at Aspiring Hut. This means you could theoretically encounter them at any stage during this paddle.  Practically, it would be very difficult to get up through the rapid below the Rob Roy Stream confluence, and they appear not to be offering regular trips up the West Branch at this time. However they definitely do operated regularly below the East/West Branch confluence, and up the East Branch, so its worth reading the Jetboat courtesy code for safety tips before you head out, and give them a call!

Gauge

Matukituki River at West Wanaka

Median Flow is about 40 cumecs, which ends up being a little boney in the class I/II section. More reliable flows tend to be Spring and early summer, when snow melt and rain events keep it topped up.