I’ve been there and it’s a nice spot. It’s in the head of the north branch of the Butler River, which is a tributary of the Whataroa River. There’s a track up the Whataroa and then up the Butler to Ice lake, but be warned – these are fairly rough West Coast tracks, not DoC tourist tracks. There are two huts on the way, Butler Junction Hut at the junction of the Whataroa and the Butler, and Top Butler Hut up the Butler, at the junction of the North and South branches. It’s a day in from the road to Butler Junction Hut, from there it’s a day trip up to Ice lake and back with light day packs, and then a third day back out down the Whataroa to the road. However, I would allow an extra day, to allow for back weather. To get to the track up the north branch of the Butler you have to ford the south branch, which is a fairly serious crossing (or at least it was when we did it) and would be completely uncrossable if it was at all up after heavy rain (or after heavy snow-melt in the afternoon on a sunny day). There are also some side creeks up the Whataroa which could be difficult or impassable if they were up. This is reasonably serious country, and not the sort of place I’d recommend going into unless you’ve had a reasonable amount of tramping experience.
The whole area is nicely contained on the Whataroa topo map, sheet I35, and is also described in Sven Brabyn and Elise Bryant’s guidebook, “Tramping in the Southern Alps, Arthurs Pass to Mt Cook”.
I hope this is of some help.
– Harry
