Up at the head of the Tasman Valley near Aoraki/Mount Cook, this short track gets you about as close to the glacier-fed lake as you can manage in a vehicle. The payoff is the view of the lake dotted with icebergs calving off the ice above, and it punches well above its length.

It's rocky and bumpy the whole way, so the going is slow and you'll likely pick up some pinstriping. Leave the low or pavement-bound vehicles at home. The track doesn't run as far as it once did. A mountain stream on the western side has carved the gravel wall away down into the glacier lake, and that slip is considered unfixable, so the route ends a few hundred metres past the avalanche area.

Access can be restricted by a chain at the second avalanche area, and the track is sometimes closed over winter after heavy snow to cut the avalanche risk. Worth checking before you commit, but if it's open it's a rough little adventure well worth the detour.