Sunday, February 27 – Tuesday March 1, 2005 Routeburn or Bust!

Day 1 – "Do you really expect us to carry our heavy packs for 8 miles through the rain? Get serious David…"

Well, in order to do the Routeburn, you must know a few things…it’s a hike through about 5 different types of climates, and can have severe weather because one of the climates is alpine, at over 4000 ft on exposed ridges. It can snow in the middle of summer, in fact, or it can be in the 70s during the day and 30s at night. Also, the hiking distance is 33 km, about 20 miles or so. Some people hike it in one day by running the course – the record so far is under 3 hours! Others do it in 4 days, 3 nights. The most popular way is to do it in 3 days, 2 nights and to stay in some of the DOC (Department of Conservation, the NZ equivalent of the National Park Service) huts along the way, which is how we chose to do it

A word about the huts. For anyone who has ever gone backpack camping, where you need to lug everything with you, tent, stoves and fuel for the stoves which can run out!, water filtration, I mean everything, the huts are a dream. They have mattresses for all, hot stoves to dry your wet clothes, screens on the windows, running water, and propane cookers with gas supplied. In a word, for a camper like me, the place is heavenly, because it allows for the a good deal of comfort in a true wilderness setting ( they resupply the huts with goods every once in a while via helicopter since there is no road access once you start until you finish!). For others who have never camped, it’s the barely tolerable, and the most they can imagine allowing themselves to be in a wilderness setting – I guess it all depends on your perspective. In any case, because of all these variables with food and weather, we had to carry a good deal of clothing. Did I mention that it’s near Milford sound, and gets less rain ( only on average about 14 ft instead of 20 ft…seems like a big difference, right? Not when you get to a hut and see that it has rained nearly 70 out of the last 90 days…) But we had less gear than I am used to, so off we went.

We rented sleeping bags and began our hike with a 4 hr drive from Queenstown, to a place known as the Divide. We had woken up at an ungodly hour to make our 7am bus – or was it that we just stayed up late? Details are hazy about such things….

As we are about to depart for the hike, we see a tour bus pull up – we pride ourselves on always being ahead of these things, which makes for a most enjoyable day usually. It turns out these folks are on a guided version of the 3 day hike. They stay in separate huts and have their food flown in. Sounds great, but it costs a lot more. However, some of the folks are in their 60s! Well, we decide to let them go first and then perhaps we will catch up with them along the way.

As we soon discovered, there was little worry of that happening, as we had a fairly long, though gradual uphill trek for about 1 hr, to a place called Kea Summit. A note on trekking first – that’s what they officially call hiking in NZ and OZ – trekking or tramping. Officially it’s called the Routeburn Track, which we tramped. Anyways, we get to this wonderful lookout called the Kea Summit. Till now, its been cloudy and even foggy, so you can’t see anything, but since our packs seem quite heavy and it was time for lunch, I thought why not, lets hike an extra 45 minutes there and back (what they call ’45 minutes return’ in empire speak), and see the sites – maybe the fog will clear! We see that many have the same idea, and have left their packs at the foot of the trail – this was off the main ‘track’ mind you. Another thing worth mentioning. You wonder, why would you leave your pack in plain site at the foot of a trail? Mightn’t someone steal it? Well, since everyone has heavy packs on this trail, what would be the point? In fact, our packs as you might imagine were heavier than many others, which was part of the plan to ‘protect them’. At least it sounds good for their being heavy, right? Anyways, we do the deed, hike to the top, and as we go further and further, it starts to rain, then the winds come and next thing you know it’s a real rain storm, as we try to eat lunch on an exposed mountain summit, where we can see nothing but the next cloud. Very appealing place to eat lunch. We did have one saving grace – we met some Israelis along the way, and started to realize that this was like India or Nepal – Israelis were thick as thieves on this hike! Each night, in fact, we had fun encountering groups of Israelis at each of the huts. Fun, you wonder? Well, the Israelis stick together as if they all know each other, which they don’t, but I guess because there is strength in numbers and the language barrier to overcome for some. They all have some secret handshake that allows them instantly to realize who is Israeli and how many people they know in common even though they just met. I am not exaggerating – they told me this is how they get on while on their worldwide travels. What was fun was that we spoke English of course and wouldn’t let on that we understood Hebrew, so we were ignored. Then all of sudden, in the middle of an interesting conversation, I would respond in kind and that blew their socks off, to find someone who knew Hebrew but wasn’t Israeli, or identifying as Israeli at least…. This is how one has fun on a long trek….

Well, as we continued to hike after lunch, the packs seemed heavier and heavier, the climbing stopped for awhile, there were even some breaks in the clouds as we hiked through a beautiful rainforest with fern encrusted trees hundreds of years old. I have pix below of some of this. Then of course, it started to rain, and we thought, we can ignore the rain – our packs will be fine and we must be close to the end of the day…two hours later, soaking wet we arrive in camp, exhausted and last to make it, which means we have very choice accommodations at the ‘First Come First Served” Hut we are staying at. After some hot food and clothing changes, we settled in for the night and boy did I sleep well that night. We also met some nice folks, including one woman in her 50s who was on a very personal mission on this hike. It turns out it was her second time doing the Routeburn. “How long ago was the first time” I ask? “Over 10 years ago, with my late husband” she answers. That always puts a damper on a conversation, but you can tell she wants us to understand her mission, but she needs to get there her own way. So we talk about other things, and one question is, “are you carrying any non essential items in your pack?” “Yes, wine.

She then proceeds to explain about her husband. It turns out that he was a very devoted hiker/tramper, so much so that he founded a local tramping club in their local area of NZ. She then tells us that her husband passed away about 16 months before, and she had the wine along in order to toast her husband's memory. “Celebrate?” Yes, she explains that earlier that day she had climbed to the top of a place called Conical Hill, which is on the portion we are going to cover the next day and is nearly a mile high, the highest climb along the hike with stunning views on a clear day. The last time she had climbed Conical Hill had been with her husband and it had been one of his favorite places. So she decided to return to the Routeburn to scatter her husband’s ashes on the top of Conical Hill, which she had done earlier that day, and that’s what she brought the wine for, to drink a toast in her husband’s honor along the track. Even as I write this I have chills, because of her devotion and purity of purpose – she asked us to think of him the next day when we went there, which I did. I think I will always think back on this story when I think of my time on the Routeburn, which is not a bad way to be remembered….


Day 2 - Superb Alpine Views and Weather, more heavy packs!

Well, we woke and got ready with some difficulty, since there are no showers along the Routeburn, and it was a bit cold. But my spirits were lifted by the new weather forecast, which each hit updates on a board about 8:30AM each day (they have radio contact with the outside world since cell phones most certainly do not work along the Routeburn). The day before the weather for Day 2 had called for rain and possibly snow and hail! at higher elevations. Remember, this is like the end of August in NZ, yet snow was possible!

However, we had learned to discount weather reports in that area somewhat, since the weather is very variable in that area of NZ. In fact, the day we drove to Milford Sound, it looked cloudy and possibly rainy the whole way, until the last 15 miles when we crossed over into the valley that Milford Sound occupies, where the skies were sunny and few clouds were to be seen. So who knew, maybe it could even be nice if bad weather was forecast…It turns out that’s exactly what happened, as our weather luck on the trip continued to hold. We had a superb day along the track, with very clear weather, though a bit chilly at times in light of our elevation. We could even see all the way to the Tasman Sea, about 30 miles or more in the distance. See the pix below for some of the spectacular shots I managed to get that day. We had a pretty tough climb in the morning once we left the hut, but once that was under our belt, we had a few shorter climbs until we reached the Harris Saddle, the highest part of the track, about 5000 ft high where a side trail goes very steeply up to Conical Hill, which is another 800 ft higher or so. To our amazement, as we reached Harris Saddle, we saw two incongruities; we saw most of the folks from the guided hike, many of them in their 50s and 60s, who had managed to beat us again, and about 30 8 year old kids, who were on a day hike of about 8 hrs return, going all the way to the top of conical hill and back. In fact, many of these kids had never even gone on a hike, but here they were climbing at a fairly high elevation. This is part of program, we later learned, to introduce local kids to the outdoors and to their local attractions. In fact, the next day on our way out, we met the same group leader, bringing in another group of 30 similarly aged kids, to the same destination as before.

Anyways, luckily it’s all downhill from the Harris Saddle cause we were beat that day, and we again arrived last to the hut, part of our abiding reputation at that point. I also neglected to mention another group of folks, which we affectionately call the ‘midwives”. What could childbirth have to do with hiking, you ask? It turns out that a group of 5 women, all friends and all midwives, live in the same area of NZ and some even work together. They also like to go away on ‘holiday’ once in awhile without their husbands or kids. This is there version of vacation, hiking in remote areas with packs on their back, for days at a time. They in fact hiked a longer version of our hike, over 5 days which allowed them to do a circular loop and return to the same place they started. Anyways, we had a very nice time with these ladies and there is a shot of some of them with us below. All in all, the people we met were very friendly and interesting, and each one had a story to tell, as to how they got there and where their path in life was taking them. Many were young, some were old, but all were interesting to talk to, if you took the time to get to know the people.

Needless to say, we had no troubles again going to sleep that night!


Day 3 – "Is it really over? Can I stop wearing my pack? Say it ain’t so, I want to hike for longer…"(well, the last part was my wishful addition..)

If you have been following along, day 3 is the final day of the track, and the easiest as its all downhill and after the first hour, very well graded and in most cases very gradual. Each day we had hiked about 7 - 8 miles, and we only had under 5 miles left! We decided to leave early, given our history of arriving late – we did not want to be late, because we had arranged for a bus pickup at 2pm that day – if you miss it, fat chance that you are easily going to get home that day! Anyways, we left at a reasonable time, and had as our hiking partners the midwives, who turned out to be two things;

a) pleasant and enchanting company on the final leg and
b) good pace setters.

In fact, because we were eager to finish and were hiking at a good pace, we managed to finish in less time than the expected time that the DOC specified along the hike for various segments. Previously, we had found that the time specified was more of a ‘recommended time’ – something a person might strive for if they ran the whole way without a pack, and maybe without their clothes, which after all could slow one down, right? Perhaps we just got used to our packs at that point, perhaps we were beyond caring – in any case, we finished nearly an hour sooner than the recommended time, thanks to the midwives! We finished so early that it looked like we would have to wait for about 2 hours till the bus came. In actual fact, we were lucky and got a ride from an Israeli we had met along the way, who through a piece of great luck, managed to have a car waiting at the end of the hike with spots in his car, even though he had hiked in our direction, a one way hike. Anyways, we had a great time, once we finished and managed to eat, shower and sleep properly – by then we were telling war stories of the hike, as you might imagine. These become sagas, that you relive and retell. I highly recommend the experience, if you have any inclination to try a long hike. The hut system in NZ is very unusual and little seen in the US – I have heard they have it in some other countries, but I doubt as developed as the NZ hut system is, with about a dozen hikes that have top quality huts – they have a reservation system and even have 3 LEVELS OF HUTS, in terms of amenities – ours where they top, and were in very good shape, I can report. All in all, a highlight of the trip, as you can see from the pictures below.