New Zealand's Great Walks - The Routeburn Track - Evening 1

Dec 27, 2011 - The Evening

Upon completing River Boarding in the early afternoon, we showered and gathered our back packs that we packed for the next 4 days of adventure. We had to carry our food for the duration of the next 2 days as well, as we'd be miles from civilization, with no roads connecting us to anything. Just our own two feet. We left Queenstown in a van, with a newly cooked pizza packed to eat later for dinner and we were short on times so we grabbed Subway for the road.

Lake Wakatipu:

Me on a windy windy WINDY day at a Lake Wakatipu overlook:

Tim & I en route to the Routeburn Track:
Sheep!

Our driver brought his son along, who at age 12? has his scuba certification and has done far cooler things in his life than most of us dream of doing. James, Sarah, and Ben accompanied us in this van, and by accompanied, I mean, we met them while in the van, and they were off to do the Routeburn Track as well. The guys, best friends since they were young, were both Kiwi's, and she was a Brit, who met James while traveling / working over seas, and they recently got married and live in NZ. We could not have met a better three people on the ride, as we'd end up hiking much of the track with them.

The Routeburn Track is a 32km (20 mile) hike, traditionally, beginning at the "Routeburn Shelter" and venturing through a mountain pass to "The Divide," a mere 30km from the world famous Milford Sound. The driving distance between these two points is 350km (yes, 350km) by road. There are 4 huts along the path to stay at, ideally on day 1, you hike to the 2nd hut, day 2 to the 3rd hut and day 3 you finish the track, however, these only sleep between 20 and 50 people each and camping is not allowed at these, so you have to plan about 6 months in advance, which of course, we did not. We were able to get a night at the first and fourth huts, leaving our main day, a very...very...lengthy day.

The divide begins the track at an elevation of 1,800' the peak is the Harris Saddle topping out at more than 4,000' and we did a side hike up Conical Hill from the Harris Saddle up to 4,750'. The Routeburn Track ends at the divide at 600' above sea level.

We had, on our backs, everything we needed for the next 4 days (1.5 days hiking, 0.5 day fun in Te Anau, and 2 days kayaking Doubtful Sound), however, we could replenish our food when we got to Te Anau. (Pronounced like "Keanu" Reeves). 2 long sleeve polyprop shirts, 2 short sleeve poly prop, polyprop lounge pants to sleep in, 2 pairs of polyprop boxers, a fleece, a rain jacket, a flashlight (torch as they call them here), 3 pairs of wool socks, 1 pair of zip off pants/shorts, and 1 pair of gym shorts.

We tucked our camel backs for water into our bags, brought some sugar water to make 'kool-aid' per se, a form of spaghettios for dinner (tim had the pot to cook them in), nutella, PB&J, a couple boxes of granola bars, and I wore my hiking shoes, while my water shoes, flip flops, towel, our loaf of bread, and sleeping bag dangled from various straps on my bag. It was time to start our journey!

Following the ride to the Routeburn Shelter, we plopped on our backpacks, took our obligatory prior to the track photos, and were on our way.

Part of this hike was the same hike we did while canyoning, and we reached the initial bridge that we had to jump off of into the canyon / waterfall / white water below and still couldn't believe that we'd actually done that jump.

We jumped from the skinny tree in the middle to the white water in the lower left: See Canyoning blog for more

As we trekked towards our first destination, we hiked through what seemed like several different worlds. At first, it was your standard forest and trees, then we're hiking along the picturesque river and its massive boulders as it carves its way into the mountain side,

next we're in a land of Dr. Seuss where everything is covered in moss, there are Jurassic Park-esque ferns growing every where and the trail is surrounded by them.

It was unreal how much the landscape changed over such a relatively short trail (about 5 miles til the first stop).

Our driver had told us about a guy who provides a service, he drives a group to the Routeburn Shelter, drops them off (45 min trip) then drives back ALL the way to The Divide side (remember, 350km!!!) away and drops off their car on that side, where they can pick up their car 2 to 4 days later when they finish the hike. Otherwise, its impossible to get your car. THEN, this same guy does the entire Routeburn Track....RUNNING. He runs it. All 20 miles, and he does this upwards of 4 times a week!! He runs it backwards, up 3,500' down 2,000' more, and all the ups and downs in between. Oh, and its rocky, challenging, and difficult to walk on, let alone run it. His best time was 3 hrs and 11 minutes, and once he gets back to the Routeburn Shelter where he dropped the hikers off at...his girlfriend drives up from Queenstown (the 45 minutes) and picks him up. This has to be lucrative because this guy is nuts!!

So we're hiking along, and a man comes running by, slightly perspiring, so we naturally say hello as we do to everyone else we pass on the trail going the opposite direction, and I ask him...are you the famed guy who runs the trail everyday? He laughs and tells us yes.

He only carries a small 1 liter camel back with a Orange Juice / Water combination, who knows how that works out for him, but otherwise, he stops to drink from some of the springs and continues on. What an incredible man, and in shape too!! I was able to discretely snap a picture of him while he was talking to us, and I'm glad I did for memories sake!

We continue upward and enter this enormous field, which turns out to be the Routeburn Flats, James, Sarah, and Ben continue on another 1.5 to 2 hrs to the next hut and Tim and I set up shop.

We give our ticket to the hut ranger (what a weirdo, all he said was "yeh yeh yeh"), but I guess that's what you get when you live in a hut in the wild for a week at a time on rotations. We eat our left over pizza, and take in the views of the valley. I venture off, towards the campsite by myself, and have one of those moments of "wow, this is the life, this is incredible" and just thinking about future travel plans. These are the moments that truly make traveling the world as special as it is.

I enter the hut with the intention of journaling, and aguy with dreads strikes up a conversation with me, he was traveling with his wife/fiance/gf? who they had met while traveling years ago, and there was one other man in his upper 40s. We all speak, and I learn that the 2 of them have been backpacking for more than 2 years. I was hardly shocked by this, but what I was shocked by was how they were doing it. They backpacked Australia for a full year, and they lived out of a camper van. Solar panels for the fridge, a "shower sack" for their showers...for the 2 of them, they would shower entirely using 3 liters of water. (3/4 of a gallon!!!) They hang this sack from a tree, stand under it, get wet, suds up, rinse, done. Then the other goes. Imagine that, 2 people showering for a full year with less than a gallon of water! Speaking with them, they seemed pretty normal, just nomadic, as can be! They set up shop in a town in Australia because he found contract work for 5 months, so she got a job...picking fruit. Which actually, if you'd like to extend your 1 year Australian work visa, you have to spend 90 days working in agriculture to get your extension so her doing that, was super beneficial to their team. Also...minimum wage is....$18.50 there!!! $18.50!!! And the Aussie dollar is equally as strong as the American dollar. With his temp wages and hers, they were able to leave Australia with...MORE than they came there with. Incredible. They / we shared some more travel stories, and I can't wait to get on the road and travel myself!!

The hut was set up as a common room, a kitchen with burners, and 2 bunk rooms, 10 beds each, climbed onto my "mattress" which was the same quality of camp outs when I was a kid with my dad. Climbed into my sleeping bag, ready for an early wake up call to get on the road for our long journey the next day!!