Routeburn Track

New Zealand has dozens (hundreds?) of amazing multi-day tramps, but only nine of them carry the official title of Great Walks - three on the North Island and six on the South Island.

Generally speaking, the New Zealand Department of Conservation does an excellent job of keeping up the tracks, but they put a special emphasis on the facilities for the Great Walks. Almost all of them have huts with cooking stoves, heat, bunks, running water and toilets - even flushing toilets at some sites!

We had some grand scheme of doing all nine Great Walks, but haven't had the best of luck so far. As some of you may recall, we attempted the Tongariro Northern Circuit three times back in December 2013/January 2014, but each time we were thwarted by the weather ("you might not make it, but you could give it a go"). We also did a two day canoe trip on the Whanganui River last April, which was a portion of the Whanganui Journey Great Walk (even though it's more of a row than a walk), but not the full thing.  Those attempts and half-attempts are the closest we've come to completing a Great Walk until Easter 2015, when we hiked the Routeburn Track with  four friends.

At 32km, the Routeburn Track is one of the shortest Great Walks. Some people do it in two days and some people even run through it in one, but the most traditional option is a three-day hike. Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays here, so we took advantage of the long weekend to cross Routeburn off our list. We got up before the sun on the morning of Good Friday to fly to Queenstown, where we caught a bus into Fjordland National Park to start the 9km walk to our first hut around 3pm.

We hiked from left to right - starting at the Routeburn Shelter, staying at the Routeburn Falls Hut on the first night and hiking to the Lake Mackenzie Hut for the second night, and then catching our bus back to Queenstown from the Divide on Day 3.

The Routeburn Track is one of the most famous in the world among hikers, and based on my (not so) mini photo-essay below, it's not hard to see why!

Day 1 - Routeburn Shelter to Routeburn Falls Hut

Setting off - the first day was the easiest, with a mostly-flat walk along a river and through some bush.

This trail even had toilets along the trail - with toilet paper included! Apparently the Routeburn and Milford are the "fanciest" of the Great Walks.  Usually it's BYOTP and be prepared to go behind a tree.

Top left - The last section of the trail is very steep, with a slippery, rocky "staircase" at the very end. These 2km are estimated to take almost as long as the 6.5 km before them. But we finally made it to the hut, which was amazing! We boiled up some bangers and mash for dinner and sipped wine by the fire while a minstrel played classic campfire tunes on a handmade ukelele. Does life get any better than this?

Day 2 - Routeburn Falls Hut to Lake Mackenzie Hut via the Harris Saddle

We woke up on Day 2 to a hard and steady downpour, and ended up hanging out until after 10am for it to slow a bit. It didn't rain that hard again the rest of the day, but there was a constant drizzle and fog for most of the day. Thankfully we were all prepared! The middle right picture is looking back at the hutsite - complete with emergency helicopter pad. Bottom right shows some crazy people swimming in the waterfall.

Our walk through Harris Saddle. This was the hardest part of the entire hike for me. It was raining, cold, slippery and STEEP! These pictures don't capture how much of this was straight uphill. Bottom right is the natural shelter we stopped at to have a snack and a break from the rain.

We made it to the Harris Saddle shelter just as the sun was coming out! We had a quick lunch and then the others set out on the optional side hike up Conical Hill while I stayed with the packs. Thankfully the clouds parted long enough to make the extra 2 hour hike worth it.

Coming back down the other side of the mountain after Harris Saddle was as varied in terrain as the weather was that day. It seemed like we hiked through the plains, the tropics, a rocky wasteland and Fanghorn Forest all in a few hours. Also, contrary to what the map depicted, it was not a gradual decline down to the hut. It was unexpectedly uphill for most of the way until it took a sharp dive downhill for a very steep walk down into the Lake Mackenzie valley. We were EXHAUSTED when we arrived, but some mac n cheese, wine and hot chocolate cheered us right up!

Day 3 - Lake Mackenzie Hut to The Divide

We were thrilled to wake up Day 3 to find that it was sunny!  It was cold (less than 4*C when we set out), but the views were too stunning to notice. The bottom left is a picture of the "poncy hut up the way" for the people on guided walks. For just $1200-1500 per person ($1000+ more than the regular huts), you can have someone carry all your bags, cook all your meals, and stay in fancy huts with hot water, soft beds in private rooms, and even television! We call these people cheaters.

The end of the hike took us past some breathtaking waterfalls and then back into the forest for the final descent down to the Divide. We started to hear the road below about an hour before our hike ended, which at that point seemed weird and otherwordly.

We made it!  I'd like to thank the people who suggested I bring a walking stick, the people who invented the walking stick, and the people who lent me a walking stick - I couldn't have done it without you!  And of course I'd like to thank all of my Easter Tramps - I'm so glad you were able to join us and am grateful for your patience and optimism.  When's our next tramp?!