The Rob Roy Glacier track should be open early next year.

The track was closed back in July 2020 when the Department of Conservation (DOC) discovered a slip had undercut the route.

There is a contractor working on the track at the moment although the work hadn’t been completed, a DOC representative said.

“At this stage, it is possible the track will be open at the end of January depending on the weather.

“There was poor weather for a while, and there was difficulty getting a contractor to do the work because they were tied up in Fiordland. “These issues slowed the rebuild down.”

But contractors are expected to begin rerouting the track in the second week of January, they said.

The 10km return track is enormously popular with tourists offering a sedate route into a dramatic alpine landscape of ice falls and steep rock faces.

It attracts up to 20,000 visitors each year.

DOC said the Rob Roy Glacier could, in the meantime, be viewed from the Matukituki Valley.

Read edition 1005 of the Wānaka Sun here.