December 28, 2011
What.A.Day. Exhausting, but unbelievably worth it. It started when we awoke to the sunlight filling our room and the rustling of fellow trampers getting their gear ready for the day. We hit the trail at 8am and did not finish it until almost 9:30PM. Yes, 13.5 hours of hiking with all our gear on our back, up a vertical half a mile, down a vertical quarter mile (so we climbed up the sears tower twice and down once eseentially) and that's not even accounting for the constant up and down that the trail has as you walk its course. 14 horizontal miles later, we arrived at Lake Howden. Here's how we did it and the highlights along the way:
Routeburn Flats Hut to Routeburn Falls:
We left the picturesque plains of the Flats hut and made our way up to Routeburn Falls, a short 2.5km hike, but it was a grueling vertical the whole way, about a 1,100' vertical increase. Most of this was through a forested path, until the path just opened up. We were at the site of a previous rock fall that cleared the entire view of the flats below.
Routeburn Flats Valley Below where we started this morning:
Stunning view #9283 for the trip thus far. We tracked on, across various 1 person wide bridges, suspension bridges over ravines, and took in the water falls as we went along. We reach the falls hut, went to fill up our water supply, as a mist began to fill the air, and the temperature dropped. Who do we see? James, Ben and Sarah! Timing would have it such that they were ready to tramp on as well, and we continued our hike with them, give or take, 50m separating us on the trail at times, other times walking together, other times further apart, however the trail took us.
Routeburn Falls Hut to Harris Saddle:
The track begins as punishingly as it has yet to be. Switchbacks up slick rock with bits of moss on the rock, as we careen pass a thundering water fall. The Routeburn Falls wasn't a picturesque one stream of water, it was a wide valley, over loads of boulders and several tiers as it made its way down the mountainside.
Slick Rock climb on the track:
At this point, we have gone from shorts/short sleeves to start our hike this morning, to 2 long sleeves, fleece, and rain jacket, and I zipped my pants on. We continue on into the next valley, and it doesn't seem to end, we keep our heads up looking to see where the track could possibly lead us and it just keeps going and going! Tim and I picked out a boulder in the distance and estimated how long it would take us to get there, we set the over/under at 30 minutes, and it took us 31 minutes, I'd say it was a pretty good / really lucky guess. Trecking on through this vast valley (we are no longer in the trees) enjoying views of the valley strewn with a random assortment of massive boulders throughout, and 2 streams feeding into one which fed the Routeburn Falls.
Part of the trail, through the boulders:
We note that we're heading upwards to the top of this stream which is a very gradual water fall. It seems to never come, onward we go, and finally reach it.....expecting a stream on top...we are shocked to see the gorgeous Lake Harris. Nestled at an altitude of about 4,000 feet, it is continually filled by the rains / snow melt before the water makes the long journey down to the lowest part of the canyon where we started our track yesterday.
The Routeburn Flats Valley where we began this morning in the middle of this picture:
The views were stunning as we hugged the edge of the canyon, with a shear drop off the right to the Lake below.
We reach Harris Saddle, the highest point on the Routeburn Track, take our packs off, for our backs sake (we've been hiking 5 hrs at this point) and eat a delish peanut butter & nutella sandwich. Water we continue to fill from the natural streams as we go. We break shortly before taking a side hike up Conical Hill.
Conical Hill:
The fact that this is called a "Hill" is a joke. It's less than 1km hike, but goes up a vertical 700 feet. As this is a round trip hike back to Harris Saddle, we leave our bags here, because if anyone wants to steal our stuff...well...then they have to carry it 10+ miles back to 'civilization' (read: "Roads") and a further drive to any civilization. We hike on, and come across our first snow match, naturally, we have an abridged snowball fight, while wearing shorts and a long sleeve, only due to the breeze.
It has warmed up again and the sun is shining bright. We hike up vertical rock faces to make progress and about half way up, we are treated to one of the most stunning views thus far.
Lake Harris (and on the right you can see the trail we came up)
Lake Harris as it dominates the landscape below and the path that we trekked up a mere hour or so before. Continuing on, we had to hike over patches of snow, and we were all exhausted. Quads were killing us. Ben was joking with us as he was up ahead saying "this is the top" and it never would be, then he sounded truthful and he was.
The top was incredible. I literally felt like I was on top of the world. You could see one of NZ's famous fjords in one direction, snow capped mountains in every direction, and the beautiful Hollyford Valley below.
Top of Conical Hill:
Top of Conical Hill, Above the clouds:
We soaked in the views, took videos, panaramic pictures, as the wind WHIPPED across the top at a pitch loud enough that it could interrupted conversations. Off in the distance, Tim and I saw a lake and we said, "God I hope that isn't Lake Howden" (our final destination of the day) already being semi-winded and knowing we have a long day ahead. I couldn't be convinced that it was it, in retrospect, it definitely was - and it was definitely as far away as it looked.
We've already hiked 5+ hours today and we are going to ultimately end up there later tonight. I cannot believe we made it.
We trekked down Conical Hill retrieved our bags and continued on, it's mostly downhill from here.
Harris Saddle to Lake MacKenzie:
We left Harris Saddle at an elevation of 1,277m
The trail towards Lake Mackenzie from the Harris Saddle:
and trekked down the mountainside. No more than even 45 minutes later, and we looked back up at where Harris Saddle was and more importantly the peak of Conical Hill and we were stunned by the fact that we had hiked that high.
Our views for this 8km or so hike were constantly of the Hollyford Valley below. We passed water falls where we filled up our water, made mixed drinks of raspberry sugar & water and continued to trek on.
There were probably 30 or so white, industrial sized, 500KG (1,100 lbs) bags of crushed stone that must have been meticulously dropped off my helicopter and placed on the path that served as more obstacles for us to crawl over. This was annual maintenance to restore the path and prevent it from eroding down the steep slope carved by the Hollyford River below, heading towards the fjord I mentioned earlier. Below, we also saw a town with one road heading in and out, it looked like the Dharma Initiative from Lost and even with my binoculars, it was hard to detect any life, other than parked cars below - we were that far away and that high still.
Finally, we reach a flat, stopping point, Tim and I catch up to Ben, Sarah, and James as they had tramped on when we stopped to make our mixed drinks, and wash my socks in the stream, and they waited for us to catch up as we took a break, and snacked on granola bars, dried apricots that Sarah had been carrying, among other things. Our next turn leads us to a view of a Lake, at least 500' below us, Tim and I pray that somehow someway its Lake Howden, but we know it has to be Lake MacKenzie.
Switch backing down mountainside we go, back into the trees and a land that can only be described as something out of Dr. Seuss's books.
Moss everywhere, a whole new world from where we were just in above.
We arrive at Lake MacKenzie, set down our bags, and James/Ben said they were going swimming before they started the track, and despite the cold and frigid lake temperatures of the snow run off - they did...and it was great fun for all of us who were watching.
They jumped into the lake from the shore on the side, they let out shrieks, as the serenity of the valley and the snow peaked mountains in the back drop peacefully looked down and laughed at them alongside Sarah, Tim, and I.
We said our good-byes to our three friends, hoping to see them in Queenstown in New Years, but realizing we'd likely never run into them again. It was great traveling with them, and that's one of the best experiences of travel. The friends you meet and your interactions with them. I ate 2 more PB & nutella sandwiches, took an obligatory picture of the trail map saying 3 more hours til Lake Howden, and 8.6km and Tim and I trekked on.
Lake MacKenzie to Lake Howden:
We are too tired pups at this point. We trek on through the trees, and come up to the rock fall we had heard about happening just the day before! WOW!! An area that was probably 100' x 75' of rocks just fell off the cliff face, and destroyed everything in its path below, uprooting trees, destroying parts of the trail, and pummeling everything in its path. Never mess with mother nature, she will always win.
Where the rock fall began:
The track destroyed by boulders:
We hiked on, looked at our clock and saw that it was 8pm and we had in fact been hiking for 12 hrs already today. This is how we looked:
We hiked on and could hear the upcoming waterfall, the famed Earland Falls, a whopping 174m fall (almost 600') crashing into the rocks below.
We could feel its mist from a far and took in every bit of its beauty. The path took us on rocks over a portion of the pool forming below the falls, and there was an alternate bridge for when the normal pass is impassable. It was stunning.
We trekked on winding through the trees, through another valley and we could see the road we'd be aiming for tomorrow morning off in the distance and finally Lake Howden. We had made it, and darkness was finally setting in.
I took a few pictures of the lake, and one from water level which I was hoping to take another in the morning and it turned out incredible.
We cooked our dinner of spaghettios, a mixed sugar drink, some bread, and soup. The lights turned off in the hut, and we got some much needed shut eye, ready to wake in the morning and finish the Routeburn Track.
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