Mount Aspiring National Park by Jet Boat
Mount Aspiring National Park covers 3,500 square kilometres of the Southern Alps between Wānaka and Fiordland. Most visitors see it from a car park at the end of the Matukituki valley road. We take you 40 km up the river itself — the only jet boat on the Matukituki, and the only one to the base of Mount Aspiring / Tititea.
Why the Matukituki
The Matukituki is a braided, glacier-fed river that drains the eastern side of Mount Aspiring / Tititea (3,033 m). It is too shallow and too fast-changing for anything but a jet boat, and Wanaka River Journeys holds the sole Department of Conservation concession to operate on it. That means the only other people you will see up there are trampers heading for the huts.
What you will see
- The West Matukituki valley opening up, with Rob Roy Peak and the Rob Roy Glacier hanging above it.
- Avalanche Glacier and, on a clear day, the summit of Mount Aspiring at the head of the valley.
- Braided channels, turquoise pools and gravel flats that change after every flood.
- The wilderness walk: about an hour at an easy pace, through beech forest and along glacier-fed streams into McGills Creek, with your guide covering the geology, the birdlife and the history of the valley stations.
- Waterfalls off the valley walls after rain — the valley is at its most dramatic in mist.
The trip in numbers
Four hours door to door from the Wānaka i-SITE, roughly 40 km each way on the river, one hour on foot, minimum age 4, life jackets, wet-weather gear and heated handrails supplied. Adult $339 ($359 from 1 October 2026), child 4–14 $209 ($229 from 1 October).
Te Wāhipounamu
The park is part of Te Wāhipounamu – South West New Zealand World Heritage Area, recognised by UNESCO for its glaciers, forests and the wildlife that survives in them. We operate under DOC conditions on numbers, speed and where we land; the concession is why the trip has looked the same for 20 years.
Getting here
Wānaka is an hour from Queenstown via the Crown Range or 90 minutes via Cromwell. Departures are 9:45am and 12:45pm in summer (1 Oct–30 Apr) and 12:45pm in winter. Coming over for the day? See Coming from Queenstown?. Book online — nothing is charged until you confirm.