Roughin' the Remarkable Routeburn

On November 17th, we returned from our excellent 4-day, 3-night stint on the Routeburn Track, just North-West of Queenstown. Ill break our awesome adventure down for ya:

Day 1: We took the 4 hour bus ride from Queenstown to the trailhead at The Divide. Fresh faced and bushy tailed, Al and I headed to our first accommodation at Lake Howden. Most of the hike this day was through the woods and we were pretty lucky to have the sun shining for the two hours we were hiking. It was just as we got the the first cabin that the rain came in through the mountains and rain on our parade. We held off on hiking to the Key Summit for the next morning and decided instead after the rain ceased to walk around the mountain surrounding Lake Howden.

 Why are we holding hands at Lake Howden?

Day 2: Woke up early to sunshine! What a relief it was to not see rain falling as we headed off to hike the 918m up to the Summit. We had a spectacular view of Hollyford Valley and Mount Aspiring National Park and after singin' a little Stevie Winwood headed off to the second hut. Most of the day was spent climbin through the forest and after about 5km walked up to an enormous, dramatic waterfall called Earland Falls. It was definitely the largest waterfall Alex and I had ever seen and even though there were multiple "Do Not Stop" signs up, we decided to stop, drink some glacier water and eat some lunch hehe. The rest of the day was spent walking along the side of a valley and enjoying the mountainous scenery. We walked through what looked to be a fruitless orchard and shortly after came to our second stop, Mckenzie Hut. It was about 20 degrees Celsius when we arrived so we went for a short walk to the "Split Rock" (a 5 meter high rock, split in half) around the backside of Lake Mckenzie. It got cold, so we went to bed early.

 

Day 3: This was the longy and coldy. It was about 12km to the next cabin but not raining when we parted Mckenzie...luckily. We went straight up for a couple Kilometres and it slowly got colder, snowier and sketchier (about half way up we all had to walk separately so that if the rock/ice blocks fell, they would only kill 1 person at a time). We got up and over the top of this first snowy bank and made it about a km along the mountain ridge before the rain came in. It came in quick and hard and though the view was awesome from the side of the mountain, it was getting very cold as we started to get near the top of 3700 foot peak. Thankfully, there was a shelter at the bottom of Harris Saddle because the temperature dropped at least a couple degrees and we were walking through fairly thick snow. We found out only a few days before the day of the hike that we were to take a helicopter over the Saddle due to major avalanche warnings and it was sure an exhilarating one minute ride. Alex was not a huge fan since the wind was blowing us left and right as we landed on the other side on the danger zone. We were freezing and wet but only had to walk another 2 kms to our final destination at Routeburn Falls hut and enjoyed the scene of the gushing waterfall as we crawled into the cabin and into bed.

Posing all of the time. Doucheland Falls.

 

Braving the snowy switchback on Day 3

Day 4: Eazy peazy. Woke up to sunshine and walked the rest of the way down to the beautiful valley floor. Snapped some pictures of the adjoining mountain tops and then took some lunch at a nearby river bend. We took our sweet time walking to the Routeburn Road end and finished a little tired but jovial and proud of our efforts.

DONE!