The Routeburn

View from Conical Hill / Harris Saddle, originally uploaded by Tom@North.

Routeburn Track

Just finished the Routeburn Track, a Great Walk of NZ! Whoopiedoo!! A very easy track in my opinion (the Lonely Planet says it's moderate, however they also say the Copland Valley track is easy-moderate, and I found it was quite demanding for some parts!).
The views are terrific. The first day I went up the mountain, past the Routeburn Flat Hut to the Routeburn Falls hut. It took only 3 hours and I wasn't even going fast. So I arrived early, just in time for a cup of tea and some Tim Tams (NZ chocolate bars). The hut is fairly big and has space for about 50 people. So it was actually fairly busy that evening. In fact I felt I was on a holiday trip in Israel, as about two thirds of the people there were Israelis, all speaking in Hebrew, which I don't understand unfortunately.

Getting up at 7 in the morning, quick tea, breakfast, boots on and off I went just before 8. Past a beautiful lake on a plateau, up to the Harris Saddle (1277m). There was a day shelter where we could leave our packs and climb up the steep Conical Hill (1515m). There are some fine views from there. It's fairly windy up there, very windy in fact, and quite cold. Afterwards I collected my pack and continued my way to the Mackenzie Hut, my next place for the night. The walk was fantastic. All the way along the mountain, above the bush line, and mainly above the clouds as well. Great views from there as well. And very good weather all day!

Having arrived at the hut later I met Lydia, whom I've met before in Motueka. What a coincidence! It's a small world! As we're both single we decided that we're going to marry. The hut warden didn't want to act as the priest though, so we had to postpone that for a while.

The next day was rather cloudy and dark, fortunately not much rain, but the walk to the end of the Routeburn track (The Divide) was rather uneventful apart from a huge waterfall (80m) and looking forward to get back to civilisation again...

Civilisation started with a 4 hour bus trip back to Queenstown, where I had to stay for the night to catch an early bus to the Routeburn Car Park again to collect my car. Busy busy Queenstown, such a difference to the nights in the huts up in the mountains.

By the way, the hut wardens in both huts are exactly how I expected hut wardens to look like: Big guys with wooly jumpers (Merino Wool of course) and tanned skin and an authorative (spelling?) character. The hut warden in the Welcome Flat Hut which I have visited a few days earlier was rather the opposite: A 25-ish year old girl with a large tattoo on her arm, whose favourite item of clothing was a huge towel wrapped all around her and a pair of Wellington boots.

Now, it's a day's rest for me, to recover my feet, legs and my back, and to change the t-shirt which I have been wearing constantly since friday (yes, I do smell now), and I need to get a shower (which I also didn't get since friday).

Anyway, you can now head over to my flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomsen and see some of the pics I made on the tracK! Enjoy!

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Leider war ich zu faul, das alles auf Deutsch zu schreiben, aber ich dafuer schreibe ich den naechsten blog eintrag auf Englisch :)

Viele Gruesse, Tom