Stupendous scenery--after a lot of pain.

Only attempt this as a day hike if you are experienced in hiking and in decent shape (otherwise take a helicopter trip in). DOC claims an 8-12 hours return--this for a ~12 mile (19 km) return. Yes, it really is likely to take that long; the net elevation of gain of ~1600' (from 380m to 880m) requires you to ascend a total of 2500' (760m)--after the first 200-250m gain, you literally are taking two steps up and one down. The trail sidehills through southern beech forest, in places being very narrow on a steep slope. We lost count of the number of downed trees we had to go over, under, or around. The trail crosses numerous landslide (slip) scarps, making for quick steep up-and-down sections of trail. Other than some large trees, views in the forest are rare. Eventually the trail descends to near the stream, indicating you are getting close. After crossing a tributary which descends in an open area you have about 500m to the bivouac as shown on the map; this is where you emerge from the forest. A walk of ~1.5km brings you in view of the glacier and falls at the head of the valley (this is the 6 mile point); you can go farther to see more. The trail saw a total of 11 hikers on a February weekday; several had spent the night in the valley. That might be the best way to visit--you don't immediately face the daunting prospect of the descent through the trees to the trailhead. My ranking of 7 is balancing the great scenery at the top against the miserable trail up to it. Note on trailhead: the DOC trail starts on the far side of a farmer's pasture off the Lovers Leap road on the east side of Earnslaw Burn; we and several others parked on the side of the road in the grass there, but I don't know if this is permitted. A local claimed you could bushwhack up the west (right) side of the stream from the end of the road in the national park just right after crossing the Burn, but I suspect this would be very difficult

Reviewed over 8 years ago

One of the smaller Top 10 parks we visited, but quite clean and modern.

No real privacy to the sites. The kitchen being open to the outside was a rather odd choice. One key plus: they have satellite wireless internet, which was a great thing when all the land communications went down with a bridge washout well up the coast.

Reviewed over 11 years ago

FYI: United is merging with THL (aka Maui, Britz and Mighty) and Kea, so things might change.

Nice equipment, helpful staff but it seems a few things get overlooked.

Our 4 berth motorhome was spotless, cleverly designed and very functional. Because we were arriving close to closing, they had obtained the bikes we rented (usually you pick them up elsewhere). There were snafus, though: e.g., the bikes were locked with a combination nobody knew, so they had to cut off the lock. The walk-through of the motorhome was a bit scattershot and so a few things slid past us--if you are a novice motorhome driver, make sure to ask about things you don't understand. The tourism radio was not provided as scheduled. The front table proved to be broken when we pulled it out--fortunately our travels took us back past the depot and they repaired it (and got the tourism radio) fairly quickly. The staff neglected to tell us that we were expected to return the bikes to a separate address in Auckland than the motorhome depot--while the Auckland staff were at first baffled, they took on the task of returning the bikes. The company might want to review their customer briefings to make sure all the needed information is provided before correcting problems. I would advise renters to examine the relevant pages about their campervan in the United guidebook (which is mostly AA material but has United info kind of towards the rear) and the various manuals in the glovebox (the radio was a mystery for quite awhile for us because we just tried to use it and it was very different from ones we knew).

The 0800 phone service was very good, listening to our problem enough to not just put us off to the repair service. On some other questions they were helpful and polite.

Our one big gripe? Put something up over the side door to keep the rain from pouring onto hapless campervaners as they enter or exit (we got drenched a few times).

Reviewed over 11 years ago

At Christmas/New Years, the place is packed but the facilities aren't really up to the level of use (lines--sometimes long--for the showers, for instance, and the dump station is a tad awkward).

Unlike other reviewers, staff were helpful for us (helped with a stopped drain, discussed merits of some of the attractions nearby). The gates actually close totally at 11 pm (need a gate card before then), so can be something of a hassle if doing the Earth and Sky program (it is a fair stroll on over, though there is a path--we had somebody who couldn't wank that far due to injury). Maneuvering with a larger motorhome is a tad tight but doable.

Reviewed over 11 years ago and experienced in December 2012

This is a rather amazing urban holiday park.

This was one of the best landscaped parks we visited, and the facilities were clean and uncrowded and unusually well thought out (ah--the graywater drain that needed no hose, so simple and clever). The sites can be a bit tight and you would want to drive about carefully. The staff, while absolutely deluged with questioning visitors while we were there, were unfailingly polite and helpful and did not put us off.

Reviewed over 11 years ago