29-31 December 2013- The Routeburn Track

The Divide Car Park

The bus arrived at The Divide at about 5:45, so I got straight to walking to my first hut. The Lake Howden hut is only 3km but there is a little turning off to go up Key Summit at 919m high which on a sunny day like it was provides brilliant 360 views.

Key Summit

I arrived at the hut at about 7pm, signed in and then made dinner of noodles with tuna. After a long hut talk from the Warden, I went to bed. It rained in the night and was still doing so in the morning, so I got into wet weather gear and started off towards Mackenzie hut.

Lake Howden

There were no views today and as the track went slowly up through the bush, the only decent thing to see was an impressive waterfall, Earland Falls.

Earland Falls

I arrived at the Lake Mackenzie hut after 2 hours walking and in my damp state I entered the hut and made a cup of tea to keep me warm. I checked the weather report, which just said rain and then headed off back into the wet.

Ascending from Lake Mackenzie

I continued on the track and it started to gain in height as I was now above the tree line. It was still raining, but about 30 mins before I reached the high point at Harris Saddle (1255m) the rain stopped and got a break in the clouds so I got dome views at Harris Saddle.

Harris Saddle Shelter

I sat and ate lunch (Camembert pita) and then went on the side trip up to Conical Hill. It is a nice steepish track up Conical Hill, but is worth it for the view on the 1515m peak. I had some breaks in the cloud and managed to get good views to my east.

View from side of Conical Hill

After some time on the top I descended back to Harris Saddle and I continued along the track around Lake Harris and then to my hut for the night, Routeburn Falls hut by three small waterfalls. It was only about 3pm and I could have easily finished the track off that day.

Following the track

The hut at 1000m offered great views into the valleys below but this was soon obscured as it started raining again. I had a long time to kill so read (finished) my book, made dinner then after the hut talk went to bed about 9pm.

Routeburn Falls Huts and valleys below

It was a cold night and on Tuesday (New Years Eve) morning, it was evident that it had snowed as there was fresh snow on the higher peaks. I packed up my things and carried on the last 6 mile section. It started raining so i was in waterproofs again.

Descending to Routeburn Flats

I tried to go on a side trip up the Routeburn North branch past the Routeburn Flats hut, but didn't as there was a river crossing I didn't fancy. So thought I could do a track at the end of the Routeburn to kill time while waiting for my 2pm bus.

View back up the valley from a swingbridge

On the last section I walked with a Swiss guy who was after the 10am bus so I thought I would try and get on this. We just about got to the Routeburn road end in time to catch the 10am bus and I got on this one to get back to Queenstown for 12.