Routeburn Trek

So, I got back from my hiking trip Sunday evening. Wet, cold, stiff and sore, and totally loving it! Sam and I drove the car and hour and a half outside of Queenstown to the edge of a smaller town called Glenorchy, left the car in the parking lot, strapped our bags to our backs, and set off into the unknown. Well, as close to the unknown as we could get while following a carefully marked trail. The higher we got the more I realized that this was not going to be a simle hike. With the weight of a small child on my back, my legs didn't seem to want to carry me much longer than that first hour, but luckily for me, they didn't have a say in the matter. The first day was a three and half hour hike. Mostly uphill.

There are guided tours that you can pay to go on on the same trails. You pack a day pack, and another full pack. They fly your larger bag(s) to the cabins that you're staying in with a helicopter, you stay in a seperate cabin from us common folk who can carry our own bags, and you get prepared meals every day. I saw in the window of one of their cabins, they had couches. COUCHES! On a HIKE! Anyways, the first cabin that Sam and I stayed in was right on the tree line, and the patio overlooked this beautiful tree filled valley. Rolling mountains, and a wide river on the valley floor, and that's it. Nothing else. No cars, no houses, the odd helicopter, and that was it! Bliss! Pluss I wasn't walking uphill any more. Lol The cabins were equipt with gas burning stoves, and we had brought trekking food. Freeze dried meals! Yum! You just opedn the pack, add water (cold or boiled, depending on if you were eating a hot dinner, or an ice cream dessert) and enjoy! They're actually pretty good. Except the ice cream. A little dissapointed in that one.

Day two was, on average, a five and a half to six hour hike. We were told it was going to rain really hard that day, so we got an early start. We drank our breakfast, ate some nuts, and got on that trail before the rest of the cabin. Since we were past the tree line now, we would be exposed to the elements for the majority of our trip that day, and we didn't want to end up caught in the rain on a rocky ledge. A couple of extreme hikers had died on a couple of different walks earlier in the month. One who was a guide, died while helping to repair part of the trail. I don't have all the details on that one. And an Israeli girl (who was trekking on her own, not the best idea in the world) got fogged in, took off her pack to find her way, and fell down a cliff. Most of the trek that I was on was a tiny pathway allong the edge of a cliff, with a cliff wall going straight up beside you. You do NOT want to be moving around on it if you can't see where you're going! When we got to the ridge where we could see the second cabin, Sam and I were extatic! "Should only be about a half on hour to reach the bottom of the valley now!" We though. HA! An hour and a half later, after the most grueling, rocky switchbacks, and with knees that didn't want to hold us up any more, we stumbled into the cabin. Then we had to walk up stairs to get to the bunks where we could put our stuff down. BUT we reached the second cabin in five hours flat, and beat everyone else by two hours! Well, except the one guy who was going on to another cabin that day, and the guy who RAN the ENTIRE TRACK (all three days worth) in FOUR HOURS! (How do I know that, you ask? Because I recognized him when he passed me on the descent from Hell as one of Travis' raft guide coworkers. And Travis later confirmed that it was him, and what took Sam and I twelve and a half hours over the course of three days, he RAN in FOUR HOURS! If I could make those letters any bigger, I would!

There was the gorgeous mountains lake out front of our second cabin, and Sam and I put our feet in for a bit before we had a nap on the bank. It never did rain that day. But looking at our last day out there, I realized the clouds were just saving up so they could pummel us later.

The nice thing about being in the wild here in New Zealand, is that you don't have to worry about surprising a bear and her cubs, or being stocked by a cougar, because there are no carnivors! Yes!! You do have to be careful about leaving your stuff outside during he night, though. Possums and Keas (The New Zealand parrot that I have yet to see) will steal and tear everything apart before morning. And no, we didn't leave anything outside.

Last day, we wake up, and it's pouring. It's supposed to clear up late in the afternoon, but we didn't want to wait that long. So we gathered up our packs, drank our breakfast, ate our nuts, and set off with our new friend, Anya from Germany, in tow. I never realized how when you don't grow up in rocky terrain, it's a lot more slow going because you aren't sure of where to put your feet. Anya had a hard time with that day's climb. Sam and I ended up way ahead of her. She caught up a couple times when we took a break, but after lunch we didn't see her again. I gave her my phone number so that she could call later, and we could travel together. I don't know if she'll do that. Our plans are a bit different. So, four hours of hiking on day three, and we're in the parking lot on the other side. Forty minutes from Te Anau, and still the rain is coming down. The bus won't be there for another hour and a half, so Sam sticks her thumb out. We get picked up by an Israeli couple who have been travelling around for a month already. Super nice people! They fed us cookies, and dropped us off at a laundromat in Te Anau where we dried some clothes to wear for the day. Then we hopped on a bus back to Queenstown, and the rest is history!

It was such a fantastic adventure! I'm so glad that we did it! My pics are on Facebook, and they are fabulous!

So, today we're leaving Queenstown. I'll be back closer to the end of the month to pick up Rachelle when she flies in. We're on our way to Christchurch today, and the busker's festival there.

More adventures to come!

Deanna