Queenstown AirportIt's been a long time since my last blog update so I apologise to anyone out there who is actually interested in this stuff. I've been busy with work then away in Samoa for the last two weeks without much Internet so am finally getting a chance to update this.
As I mentioned in my last couple of entries, my friend Leslie was out visiting for a couple of weeks. We decided to go on a multi-day hike on what is considered one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" called the Routeburn Track. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a Friday off of work and left early Thursday afternoon to catch a flight down to Queenstown on the southern part of the South Island which is the closest decent-sized city to the Routeburn Track.
We flew into Queenstown airport and had plenty of beautiful views of the mountain ranges along the way. Queenstown is surrounded by mountains and it seemed as if the plane came awfully close to the mountains on its descent. The surrounding area of Queenstown is absolutely stunning with lakes and mountains all around the city which itself is a quaint tourist town. It was autumn here and it really felt like it with leaves changing colors and the crisp air.
The Routeburn track is not a circuit and can be started from either end. One end is about an hour drive from Queenstown and the other end is over in Fiordland National Park which is about a three and a half hour drive from Queenstown. Due to my limited time as I had to be back at work on Monday, we decided to start at the far end and finish in Queenstown on Sunday so that I would be close to the airport in order to catch my 4:30 flight back to Auckland. Therefore, we would take a shuttle bus to the start of the track near Te Anau. We rented a car to drop off at the Queenstown end of the track so that we would have it waiting for us when we finished.
The first evening was spent dropping of the rental car at the trail head and getting a nice dinner in Queenstown before heading out. A couple of the photos below show some of the nice scenery around Queenstown on the drive to drop the car off.
As I mentioned in my last couple of entries, my friend Leslie was out visiting for a couple of weeks. We decided to go on a multi-day hike on what is considered one of New Zealand's "Great Walks" called the Routeburn Track. I was fortunate enough to be able to get a Friday off of work and left early Thursday afternoon to catch a flight down to Queenstown on the southern part of the South Island which is the closest decent-sized city to the Routeburn Track.
We flew into Queenstown airport and had plenty of beautiful views of the mountain ranges along the way. Queenstown is surrounded by mountains and it seemed as if the plane came awfully close to the mountains on its descent. The surrounding area of Queenstown is absolutely stunning with lakes and mountains all around the city which itself is a quaint tourist town. It was autumn here and it really felt like it with leaves changing colors and the crisp air.
The Routeburn track is not a circuit and can be started from either end. One end is about an hour drive from Queenstown and the other end is over in Fiordland National Park which is about a three and a half hour drive from Queenstown. Due to my limited time as I had to be back at work on Monday, we decided to start at the far end and finish in Queenstown on Sunday so that I would be close to the airport in order to catch my 4:30 flight back to Auckland. Therefore, we would take a shuttle bus to the start of the track near Te Anau. We rented a car to drop off at the Queenstown end of the track so that we would have it waiting for us when we finished.
The first evening was spent dropping of the rental car at the trail head and getting a nice dinner in Queenstown before heading out. A couple of the photos below show some of the nice scenery around Queenstown on the drive to drop the car off.
We had a 3.5 hour bus ride the following morning to start the track so had to get up bright and early to catch the 7:00 bus. It is nearly winter time now in New Zealand so the days are much shorter and it gets dark at around 6:00. Therefore, we had a busy first day as we planned to hike about 12Km to get to the hut once we actually got to the start of the track. The drive to the Routeburn track was beautiful - this area of the island is definitely one of the prettiest. We unloaded some of the passengers in Te Anau where they would catch a boat to the beginning of the Milford Track which is another of the "Great Walks" and probably the most popular track in New Zealand. All of the Great Walks require reservations for the huts through the DOC website and sell out quickly each year for the most popular hikes during the peak times. Milford was not available for us, but luckily there were spots on the Routeburn track which some people say is actually better than Milford (It is in the top 11 tracks in the world per National Geographic Adventure Magazine - see article here). It was towards the end of the hiking season (in fact only about a week left officially) so it was possible that it would be pretty cold, but it ended up being a pretty nice temperature.
The weather held out for us on the bus ride the entire way until we literally pulled into the parking lot of the start of the track when it started to rain. Unfortunately, this rain was not going to give up the first day. It was a bit disappointing as the low clouds and fog limited some of the views and we got soaking wet, but the moss-covered forests were absolutely beautiful and this part of the track had a lot of waterfalls which were better due to the rain. We didn't get a whole lot of pictures on the first day due to the rain but really did enjoy it despite the weather. All of the guidebooks say to expect at least one day of rain on the 3-day hike as this part of NZ gets its share of wet weather. The first day was mostly uphill so was fairly tiring although not too bad (compared to the Pinnacles hike that I talked about in an earlier post, this was much more of a gradual & manageable uphill). The second day would be half uphill until reaching the summit then mostly downhill for the next day and a half.
We got to the hut at around 4:30 just as the rain was easing up. We were totally soaked so it was nice to change in to some semi-dry clothes, cook up some hot soup for dinner, and hang out in the kitchen/common room of the hut for a while where it was nice and warm with a big fire. It's quite the communal feeling with lots of other hikers from all over the world. It was great to talk to some people and rest for a bit, but after such a long, wet, and tiring day, Leslie and I couldn't make it past about 8:30 before heading to bed. The bunk rooms are pretty nice but in this cabin (Mackenzie Hut), they are all right next to each other. Fortunately, the bunk room wasn't full so we weren't crammed in and breathing on strangers while we slept. It was a good first day but we were hoping for better weather tomorrow.
Te Anau Downs - this is where the Milford Track begins. It's about another hour drive to Routeburn from here. 
Me at the start of the Track
Elevation map of the hike
Leslie looking like a crippled Quasimoto crossing one of the small waterfalls. They say that you will definitely get wet, muddy boots on the track and they were definitely right about the wet part.
The moss-covered forests were beautiful
Leslie at the Howden Hut where we stopped for lunch and took a break from the rain.
Me in the strange forest
Lake Mackenzie Hut 
No comments:
Post a Comment