Te Waipounamu - The Routeburn Track

Grey skies and drizzle this morning - left Mackenzie Lake Hut at 8am, mindful of having to be at The Divide for a pickup by 1.45pm.

Short ascent to begin with,walking through beech forest, passing numerous streams and waterfalls. The clouds began to lift and we saw small breaks of blue sky as we passed through "The Orchard". As the track approached Earland Falls, the sound of the cascading falls became an almost deafening roar. There are two routes past the Falls - the normal route and the flood route. Today it was still passable by the normal route, but the jet-force of wind and spray from the falls nearly swept us off our feet!. Thankfully I still had my rain jacket on, so only my bottom half was saturated (but not for long, thanks to my quick-dry Macpac trousers!) A very impressive sight and one of the highlights of the Track.

We marched on to Lake Howden Hut, spoke to the ranger there and discovered that the Key Summit track junction was another 20 minutes further on. The sun had now decided to make an appearance and Lake Howden looked picture postcard perfect.

Decision time: swim or summit - the summit won!. We dropped our packs at the track junction and headed up the switchback path to the lookout at Key Summit. Great views finally, with glimpses of Mt Christina and Mt Little. The 45 minute return trip was definitely worth the extra time and effort.

 

Then it was down, down and more down to The Divide - 45 minutes - arriving just before 1.30pm. Time for a quick clean of the boots and a snack before the "Tracknet" bus picked us up - on time. We arrived in Te Anau at 2.30 to find that we had a 2 hour stop-over there. We ate and napped until 4.30 until the next bus arrived from The Divide to pick us up. We were very surprised to find the Polish Walking Poles and the Kiwi contingent on the bus - Team United Nations had been reunited!!!
We drove around the eastern shoreline of Lake Wakitapu and arrived back in Queenstown just after 7pm, just in time for a celebratory drink to toast the end of a Great NZ Walk

Te Waipounamu - The Routeburn Track

It rained most of the night, but stopped before dawn. Woke early - 5am, most people stirring by 6am.
Sat on the verandah admiring the moonlight shining on a nearby snow-capped mountain and Venus sparkling in the pre-dawn skies.

On the track by 8.15 in a light drizzle, which then became a light rain. Donned the wet weather gear, gloves and beanie. Trekked past impressive bluffs to the left of the trail and passed Lake Harris to the right. Reached Harris Saddle in1 and 3/4 hours. White-out conditions meant there was no point in climbing up Conical Hill to the lookout. We sheltered out of the weather in the hut, putting the gas burner to good use and making some coffee to warm us up.

We set off to Lake McKenzie, passing tarns and hills of tussocks but with poor to no visibility from any of the "lookouts" along the way. To keep ourselves amused, we decided to pretend we were Spanish and greet everyone we met coming along the track the other way with a "Hola"and "Buenos Dias".
Luckily for us the only people we encountered were a large group of Japanese hikers in the Ultimate Hikes group who replied each time with a very polite "konnichiwa,".
The clouds did lift enough for us to sight Lake McKenzie and the Hut on our descent and we arrived at the Hut at 1.15pm.

We managed to score the last two bunk beds in the bunkhouse above the communal dining room, hopefully away from some of the snorers from last night. We had lunch, and with the rain not abating, we chose to take a walk around the lake with a side-trip to Split Rock. Water was cascading down off the mountains creating little waterfalls - so this is what hiking in NZ is all about!

The fire in the potbelly stove made the hut very cosy and hopefully our damp clothes would dry out. Dinner tonight was Backcountry Cuisine- "Beef and Pasta Hotpot" - a much better offering than the night before - quite tasty. The safety briefing by the DOC ranger, Evan, included an informative chat about a stoat trap program he had initiated with the aim of encouraging bird life back into the area.
In bed by 9pm, needing only the sleeping bag liner to sleep in owing to the bunk-room being located above the warm communal area. Zzzzzzz.........

Te Waipounamu - The Routeburn Track

Early start - Breakfast from Ferg Bakery - their world famous breakfast rolls - egg and bacon with homemade tomato chutney - yummy!
Bus pickup at 8am - Jack scored the front seat thanks to careful manoeuvring.45 min drive to Glenorchy where a couple disembarked to head to the Greenstone Track trail-head. We arrived at the Routeburn Shelter just after 10am and after the obligatory photos at the trail-head, we set off at 10.15 over the first of 6 suspension bridges for the day

We followed the well-marked path, walking through beech forest, crossing many streams forded by wooden bridges.
We walked at a slow but steady pace to account for Jack's back injury. He was carrying 9kg - a little more than he was advised to....
I was carrying 14kg, but that included 3L of water, which I soon discovered was not necessary in a country where water is in such abundance.
After 6. 5 km and 2 and a half hours - lunch at Routeburn Flats Hut

The section from Flats to the Falls was a fairly steep ascent -300m in a little over an hour. Not too much joy during that hour - struggled with the pack weight - maybe not enough pack-carrying or hiking over the past week. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself - it was very steep.....
We arrived at the Falls Hut at 2.20pm. The skies looked ominous so we opted to walk up to the Falls, had a good look around and took some photos before the heavens opened up.

We used our own new gas stove to make dinner instead of the hut facilities as we wanted to work out how many meals/snacks we would be able to make using the one small gas cylinder. We sat down and chatted to another couple who we had been passing on the track today - a Polish couple on a 2 week holiday away from their three young sons for the first time. We nicknamed them "The Walking Poles".
Dinner was Backcountry Cuisine - "Chicken a la King" - which was OK, followed by Apricot Crumble.The safety briefing by the Hut Warden brought news of more rain for tomorrow. He then issued a challenge to all hut dwellers - to identify 20 or more Christmas greetings adorned on a wall-hanging decorating one of the walls of the communal room. We formed a Team United Nations comprising us, the Walking poles and two NZ couples sitting at the next table. After the Hut Warden collected the walk passes, the lists were checked and our group correctly identified 25 greetings - we won!!! and shared the prize of a family sized block of chocolate.