Routeburn Track

I just returned from a professional development trip to the Australian Institute of Sport, where a few Australian Olympians do their training. It was awesome, and I will certainly dedicate a blog post to that trip in a few weeks once I am caught up with all of our other adventures. For the first time in about 8 months, we have no "holidays" planned for the immediate future. Part of me is sad about that, as we have been fortunate to travel to many wonderful places in the last year or so, but the other part of me is excited to just be "home" for a little while. Melbourne itself has a lot to offer in terms of things to see and do, not to mention some great day trips within an hour or so drive of the city.

After leaving Wanaka, Erik and I headed to Queenstown, where we planned to pick up our camping/hiking permits for the Routeburn Track. This hike was one that had been planned months in advance because it is one of New Zealand's "Great Walks", meaning that campsites and huts along the route book out quickly. It is a hike that is meant to be done over 3 nights, but Erik and I thought that with our fitness level/experience we could hike it over 2 nights. When we arrived at the DOC in Queenstown to pick up our permits, we were greeted with this notice:

Great hiking and camping weather...not so much!! We were essentially advised NOT to do the trek due to the conditions, but I had REALLY been looking forward to doing the hike. At that point we were still undecided about what to do, so we went in search of waterproof pants. We both had good rain jackets, but not pants, and fortunately there are lots of good outdoor stores in Queenstown. With pants in hand, we got in the car all ready to go, but then we started hearing reports on the radio of roads being washed out and the weather getting worse. We called a hostel in Glenorchy, near the start of the hike, and the owner advised us to stay in Queenstown because he did not know if the roads would be open. At that point reality set in that we would not be able to do the hike as planned, but we would still hope for better conditions the next day. We then drove to Arrowtown, a quaint town close to Queenstown, where we found a comfortable hostel room for the night.

Main Street in Arrowtown, an old gold mining town.

We woke up to blue skies the next morning, so we decided to drive towards Glenorchy and start a modified version of the hike. When we arrived at the small general store in Glenorchy, we were told that the road to the start of the hike was open, but that we would need to be cautious on the way. It was still raining A LOT and we were told by the DOC that they did not know what the conditions of the trail past our campsite would be. We were a little frustrated due to the fact that so much was unknown about the trail being hike-able, so we decided to drive back towards Queenstown (where it was raining far less), to do a few short walks while we waited out the weather. We headed back to the general store mid-afternoon, prepped to start Routeburn, when we saw this sign:

Seriously?! A short phone call to the DOC let us know that the track was open on our end but closed on the other end, so we decided to give it a go. It was Erik's idea to spend one night on the track (where we originally intended to camp on the last night), then do a day hike to Harris Saddle and back down. It was as good of a compromise as we could make based on the circumstances. On our drive to the car park, it was pouring down rain, so we watched movies in the car until about 6pm, as long as we thought we could delay before hiking into our campsite in the rain.

I did not notice this sign until the morning when we woke up with our tent under some trees!

Despite the rain, the hike was nice. Moss covered trees, a raging river, gushing waterfalls, and a well-built track helped to pass the time. The trail was washed out in a few places, but it was nothing we could not get around. It took us about 2 hours to hike into Routeburn Flats campsite, where we set up camp and met a few friendly people, including a couple of American backpackers from the East Coast. We were told by the ranger that part of the track was still closed and they were not sure when it would re-open. That did not matter much to us, as our plan was to hike up to Harris Saddle and hike back down the same day, and the trail was open until that point, phew! We were picking up Carlie at the airport in late afternoon, so we were going to have to do some serious hiking to get up and down the mountain quickly.

We woke up early to light rain but packed up camp quickly and started the hike. We made it to Harris Saddle in less than 2.5 hours, where I hung out inside the shelter with a family who happens to live a few miles from us in Melbourne, while Erik hiked to the top of Conical Hill. This hike had it all...mountain views, waterfalls, lakes, flowers, rolling hills...it was extremely diverse. Even though we did not get the chance to hike the entire track, I feel like we had the opportunity to see some of the "best" parts of Routeburn.

The rain is good for something...waterfalls!

This was our first glimpse of Lake Harris, an alpine lake. Lake at the top of a mountain = amazing!

One of the water sources for Lake Harris

Spotted this rainbow when we were at Harris Saddle

Erik took this picture of Lake Harris through the clouds on his hike of Conical Hill.

Part of E's hike was on snow!

One more shot of the awesome alpine lake!

Sweet views of the Southern Alps

Heading down the mountain after our climb to Harris Saddle

The colors of the rocks along the track were amazing!

Looking out over where we camped the previous night.

This trail, like many NZ hikes, has lots of cool suspension bridges.

The water was much calmer on our way out compared to the day we hiked in!

Gorgeous views on the drive back to Glenorchy

While our Routeburn Track hike did not work out quite as we hoped it would, we still enjoyed the 24 or so hours that we spent on the track. Perhaps we will get a chance to hike the track in the future under better weather conditions!