Kea Point from White Horse Hill

From the White Horse Hill car park go to the campground and take the path west to the Kea Point Track. Turn right, cross the footbridge and keep straight on past the Sealy Tarns turn-off. The track rises gently through tussock and scrub to a viewing deck on the crest of the Mueller Glacier's lateral moraine, high above the grey-green Mueller Lake. On a clear day Kakīroa/Mount Sefton, The Footstool and Aoraki/Mount Cook line up ahead. Return the same way.

It is 3.1 km there and back with 82 m of ascent; allow about an hour. The grade is Easy: a gentle gravel track, one of the easiest in the park.

DOC rates the track as simple avalanche terrain, the safest of the valley walks in winter, though it can be icy. Expect a cold wind on the moraine crest, and do not climb down the unstable moraine wall towards the lake. Kea, the alpine parrots, are sometimes about; do not feed them.

DOC's car park at White Horse Hill costs $2.50 a half hour or $25 a day by card, the first 20 minutes free, and fills from mid-morning between November and March. Without a car, start in the village on the Kea Point Track, adding about an hour there and back.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.