Routeburn Track Completed!

Thursday, January 25
9:30 PM
Queenstown again

We did it! 3 days, many miles, and a lot of sweat later, Provo and I can claim that we have hiked what is supposedly one of the most beautiful tracks in the world! Although I haven't seen any of the others, I am ready to stand up for Routeburn's claim to beauty and general splendour.

Here's a profile of our days in the backcountry:

Day 1: Tuesday

Woke up at 6 AM. Luckily some Scottish girls in our dorm had loaned us an alarm, because we were both dead tired. We rolled out, packed up quickly, and walked across the road to the Department of Conservation (Te Papa Atawhai) building, and were picked up by a shuttle van at 7 AM. The drive to The Divide (as the trailhead is known) took about an hour, and the van driver was really cool and told us all about everything we were seeing. We saw the boat that you have to take to the head of the Milford Track, the Manuka trees that are famous for their honey and for being nurse trees for new plants in cleared areas, the Murchison Mountains on the far side of Lake Te Anau, the Eglington River, and the Mirror Lakes. It was a gorgeous drive, per usual, with mist hanging low over the mountains and just above the Mirror Lakes, which lie perfectly still and reflect the mist and ferns on their banks. We drove up the Avenue of the Disappearing Mountains, so named because of said mist. We started our tramp at 8 AM, the first ones on the trail that day. The first hour or so was very wet, though it wasn't raining- we were hiking through close, tight beech woods, with a thick canopy and trees hanging close to the trail. It had rained the night before, and everything was wet. The mist was hanging close, and every once in awhile the sun would shine through in rays- its own type of beauty. Our major wildlife sighting was a kea, the large gray parrots that are actually very common in New Zealand and were described by one hut warden thusly: "In the daytime, keas are loud and funny. At night, they're silent and destructive." Apparently they have shredded clothing and packs left on hut porches at night. Still, it was cool to see one sitting on a branch just a few feet away.
The entire first hour was uphill, switchbacks through the forest, until we came to Earland Falls. The falls are 80 meters high, and the wind comes down the mountain and throws the spray out across the track, which of course runs about 15 feet from the bottom of the falls. We luckily had prior warning and had our pack covers on, but we still got totally soaked by the spray. A couple hours in, once we had passed Howden Hut, the mist began to lift, and we began to realize that we were surrounded by huge, snowy peaks and unbelievably craggy rock pinnacles. We had lunch at a clear spot where we could see one peak above the clouds, and as we ate, about 6 more peaks appeared across the canyon.
The beech woods are amazing- the trees are all gnarly and moss-covered and old, with ferns and such growing out of them. I expect there were a lot of ents in among them, just standing still.
The two of us were the first trampers to reach Mackenzie Hut that day, our lodging for the night. We had done about 5 1/2 hours of hiking, excluding breaks, and arrived at about 2 pm. The hut sits just up on the shores of Lake Mackenzie, with beech forest around it, huge peaks on the other side, and a clear grassy place with big rocks that made for a perfect swimming spot. The hut itself is slightly more than a hut, according to my definition of the word. In the main house, there is a kitchen and dining area on the lower level, gas burners, cold water sinks, and rough tables, and upstairs are 30some bunks, with another 15 or 20 in a second bunkhouse. The hut warden has his own quarters, and then there is a block of flush toilets and "ablution blocks" ---pretty posh camping, if you ask me. After claiming our bunks, Provo and I spent a couple hours doing our laundry in the lake and then tanning in the 90-degree sun on the shore until our clothes were dry. By that time more trampers were showing up, and the fun really got started. This tramp was a major social experience- the multitudes of people on the track come from every nationality imaginable, and that night we shared a dinner table with a couple from London, two German girls, and 2 American boys, one who was hiking all the way out to Howden that night in his jandals (Kiwi-ese for flip-flops) and one who was taking a year to travel wherever he wanted on flexible airline tickets. It was great to meet new people, here awesome stories, compare notes, and laugh with total strangers. There was a lot of great camaraderie, with so many people crammed into such a small place, and trampers coming from both ends of the trail and giving advice to eachother regarding the next leg of the the hike. Dinner and a cup or two of tea later, it got dark (at 10 PM) and everyone headed for bed.

Day 2: Wednesday

We intended to sleep in a bit, but the nutters who were going all the way out the long way were up at 6 PM, so we got up earlier than we intended to. There was a mad rush of everyone eating breakfast, packing up, and trying to be the first on the trail so as not to get stuck behind a slow party, and hurried farewells to newly-made friends (there was no bother over learning one another's names, but good times had just the same), and then some worry over the weather. The hut warden said that it was supposed to rain, but we could see blue sky through the morning fog, so we decided to leave now and beat the rain if it was coming. Provo and I managed to be on our way by 9:30, and spent the first hour gaining about a vertical mile, zigzagging back and forth up the steep slope above Lake Mackenzie, with fog swirling around us. It wasn't cold, but at times we couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us. Once we crested that particular hill, we began side-hilling across a rockfield of glacial granite, huge chunks of stone strewn across a very very steep slope whose only vegetation was something akin to beargrass. We were well above the bush line by now, and hiking sometimes in total fog. To continue with the geeky Lord of the Rings references (don't worry, this is not the last), we agreed that we felt a bit like Frodo and Sam climbing about the Emyn Muil, the difference being we had a trail to follow and lacked an emaciated fiend chasing us and attempting to nick our valuables.
The wind moves the mist so quickly up there that one moment we were in a white-out, and the next minute we would realize that there were crags several hundred feet above us, that we hadn't been able to see before. It was actually a really neat kind of beauty, and we could tell that the sun wasn't too far away behind the clouds. After a couple hours, we began to really climb, and the sun came out, and we got pretty spectacular views. We reached Harris Saddle by lunchtime, completely out of breath but also out of the clouds. At the Saddle there are a couple emergency shelters/day huts, and we met a bunch of cool people who were also lunching there. We stowed our packs in the hut after food, and headed off for the much-recommended side hike up Conical Hill. I'm glad I did it, but I had some doubts on the way up. The closest thing I can think of to describe what that hike (a very long 30 minutes) up was like is to compare it to the vertical steps that Gollum leads Sam and Frodo up to the den of the creepy huge spider. It was that insane- nigh vertical in places, requiring use of hands to climb, huge rocks placed in steps 2 feet tall, sometimes no path over rock piles except where orange markers led. But the top of the hill was pretty amazing- the winds were 50 miles an hour up there, and the clouds racing about faster than I had seen, and clearing for a view of the valley for a few seconds before shrouding it again. I hunkered behind a windbreak rock for about 30 minutes attempting to get a good picture, but the clouds weren't cooperating so I then had to go down the path again, which of course was worse than going up. There I was, picking my way from rock to rock, thinking that I was going to pitch off the mountain and die at any moment, when two tiny Chinese women come running down the path, pass me, and take off down the mountain without a care in the world. I still don't get it.

The rest of our hike was mostly downhill, more rock-hopping (this time with a 30-pound pack to make things even more entertaining), more incredible views, and finally coming down the ridge into the Routeburn Valley. The Route Burn comes out of an alpine lake just below the Harris Saddle, and we followed it to Routeburn Falls. We came down a rocky corner and suddenly were standing in heavy winds right beside the top of the falls, with the valley stretching out in front (the picture you will see on any postcard of the Routeburn track- I won't even try to describe it, I can't do it justice) and the Routeburn Falls hut perched on the cliffside right below us. It was a long day of hiking, ankles and legs were sore, but weather had been fantastic, views incredible, and sense of accomplishment very great. Routeburn Falls hut was great- it sits on an i-don't-know-what-percent slope, with stilts to allow it to sit level, a helicopter pad in case of emergency (too steep to evacuate safely any other way), and a deck around the front looking out over the valley a mile below. I didn't like the bunkrooms there, though- dark and without storage space, the way I imagine steerage berths on a 19th century ship to be. But the kitchen and dining space was great, all windows, and this time it was a German couple we ate dinner with. The hut warden there was really fun, and had been collecting languages for about 6 weeks. He had a huge poster on the wall with "Welcome to Routeburn Falls, Merry Christmas!" written on it in about 30 languages, all by people who had come through the hut. He was offering a big chocolate bar to anyone or any group who could correctly identify 25. We teamed up with a group of Israeli girls and a Czech couple to see how well we could do. By bedtime we only had 24! Alas.

Day 3: Today!

Again we evaded rain (mostly). We really lucked out with the weather- it was gorgeous every day after the fog burned off, and we just got lightly sprinkled for a few minutes on our way out today. We talked to one couple who had been hiking for hours in fog so thick they could only see 2 feet in front of them. The hike out through the Routeburn Valley was mostly downhill, this time through open beech forest. Unlike the first day, the woods were open, the trees tall, with lots of light and just a thick fern understory- absolutely beautiful, and I'm convinced there were elves and fairies in there- it seems their natural habitat :) We followed the Route Burn through the woods, and then crossed it and several tributaries on "swing bridges," which are cable suspsensions with two boards to walk on and netting down the sides and can get pretty bouncy if you have a heavy pack on. We had lunch next to the burn, and then the rest of the hike was flat, but longer than we anticipated. Nonetheless, we still came out 3 hours before our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up. So celebration! We did it! 33 kilometres in total, not counting the hike up Conical Hill. We hung out at Routeburn Shelter, journaling and sleeping in the sun and trying to keep the sandflies off until the shuttle came.

A note on sandflies: While New Zealand doesn't have many mosquitos, it does have horrendous little creatures called sandflies. These little cretins come at you in swarms, eager for flesh and not usually caring about insect repellant. They are horrid and disgusting. I smashed a couple in my journal for keepsakes. And for the vindictive pleasure of killing something so irritating.

"Jandals guy" was actually on the shuttle, coming out to drive his car back to Queenstown, so we got to say hi again to one of our trial aquaintances. Then it was an hour's ride back to Queenstown, dinner (a "Fergberger" that was big enough for us to split and then barely manage to consume), and now laundry so we can take showers after feeling very greasy due to 3 days of hiking.

Almost out of 'net time-- I'll update again soon! Love from the southern hemisphere!