New Zealand 2015 Routeburn Track

Sunday 15 Mar 2015. Day 26. Walk from Routeburn Shelter to Routeburn Flats Hut 2½ hours. A beautiful sunny day. A very nice walk. G:16.8kg; H15.9kg The track is extremely well maintained with a good pebble surface. A new bridge over the Routeburn. Many day walkers and a big group of guided walkers that we met at about the slide-in dunny. An early start 6am to catch the 8am bus (at Track & Info). Last night we packed the two little daypacks & put them into storage. That meant we were operating out of the big walking packs from 7pm last night. A very good initiative. It meant that we had to make all those tiny decisions about what went where last night. As a result, we were 15-30 mins quicker at getting away today. Flats Hut has a little extension for the guided groups. Covered but partly open – perspex sheeting for roof & 1½ walls. The track to here from the shelter is mainly through beech forest with a moss ground cover. It climbs gently at first than begins a steeper climb around a bluff to continue up to Sappers Pass. Where we can see it, the Routeburn is spectacular green. Everything is looking dry – some smaller waterfalls not running. A very easy walk to here. Our peace was destroyed by the arrival of 3 loud Yanks who spent the afternoon sitting in the kitchen & bragging to each other & everyone else of their numerous exploits. The ugly, lod American with a strong need to dominate & impress. I fled. Two birds: a harrier attacked a female shelduck just below the hut. A rifleman eating the dead/dying flies I had thrown out the window of the hut. A very good evening. Three Scottish musicians – guitar (singer), fiddle, bongo drums. Put together an interesting evening of Irish/Scottish mainly jigs. I joined in. A highlight was the Japanese girl who sang in Chinese an Irish song (Sally Gardens) played by a Scottish band. Nice blokes.

Monday 16 Mar 2015. Day 27. Walk up form Flats to Routeburn Falls Hut. Cloud level at about 1100m. We got away early in the hope of getting up Conical Hill today. 1¼ hours walk for us (signposted as 1½ hours). An absolutely beautiful walk with a few views down onto the Flats. Steepish until crossing Emily Creek then a more graded climb to Falls Hut. Excellent view from the 1998 slip. A few beech trees are making a good start on that slip. Oh yes, beech forest all the way up. Flats is at 700m & Falls is at 1000m – right on the tree line. At the Falls Hut, there is a family group with 3 kids, here for 2 nights giving the kids a taste of the tracks & huts & not scaring them too much.

Tuesday 17 Mar 2015. Day 28. Day walk up to Harris Saddle and Conical Hill. A sunny day at times. I really do like that walk up past Harris Lake – a perched lake stuck behind a tough ridge of gneiss. The glacier carved a big cirque leaving this gneiss barrier & now a lake has formed behind it. As we walked up first past the spectacular Routeburn Falls around a few hills and across a wide glacial u-shaped valley, we see the waterfall coming out the snout of Harris Lake. The track climbs steeply to our left (true right for the Lake) and skirts around above the Lake to Harris Saddle. As I said – steep. One excellent rock that looks like Asterix’ mate Obelix would hurl it at Romans (a tad oversized). We took 1:40 to walk the signposted 2 hours. From Harris Saddle we put our raincoats on, left the packs at the shelter and climbed the very steep track up Conical Hill. I piked out about 50m from the top when it began to snow. I was (rightly) very worried about the descent – which I hated. Very light snow flakes falling. The shelter was crowded and noisy so we gathered the pack and walked back to a sheltered where we could look down on Harris Lake for lunch. BTW the pack started with just raincoats, emergency warm clothes, 3 litres of water & lunch. I carried it up & Helen carried it back. I did not enjoy the walk down the broken rock (schist & slate) that made most of the track down very slippery & hard on my knees. Back at the hut, I had a lie down for an hour.

Wednesday 18 Mar 2015. Day 29. A snorer last night in the bunk on the other side of the wall from Helen. I woke him/her (difficult) & suggested he/she should move to the kitchen. He/she was wearing earplugs so as not to be disturbed by snorers. A gentle walk down the hill today. Took us 1:10. Not as cold last night as the night before – only 2 jumpers not 3. We think that we had close to exactly the right clothing for the walk. In my pack, I have only a set of long underwear that I have not used – and it would not have had to be much colder to need them – and a spare pair of socks. Everything else was used. Down at Flats Hut, it is gently raining & Helen has lit the fire. In the afternoon, the sun came out for a lovely sunny day. Two French girls who were supposed to be camping but gave up & spent some of the night in the Hut kitchen. “There was glace on the tent & in the tent”. A delightful, very young Israeli girl who was very unprepared but was doing her best.

Thursday 19 Mar 2015. Day 30. We walked out to Routeburn Shelter 2:15 hours. began in cloud; finished in sunshine. G:15.9kg; H12.1kg. A good gentle walk out along the Routeburn which is spectacular at times when it is forced into a very narrow chasm. About ½ of the way we walked on river true right, then to river true left. A good easy walk. My left calf was playing up.