Tramping the Routeburn

A long overdue blog... Sorry! For the last 6 weeks my parents have been out visiting us in Auckland and touring around New Zealand. Time spent with them, work and fitting in our Half Ironman training has been a wee bit busy - I'm sure you guys didn't mind waiting for the write-up though. 

There's too much to fit in one blog, so I'll concentrate this on one of our highlights of NZ so far - tramping the Routeburn Track, one of the country's Great Walks. The Routeburn felt amazingly isolated and equally spectacular; it's a 32km 3 day tramp through two national parks, staying in mountain huts and carrying all your own gear along the way. Early on the Wednesday morning, Sarah and I flew down to Queenstown to meet my parents who were travelling around in our little van, Carrie. After a pit stop for 3 days of food that we'd need to carry over the mountains, we were off on unsealed roads to the trail head.

Mountain valleys filled with a sea of clouds from the plane

We were all fully loaded and eager to get going. From the very first step, the scenery and trail didn't disappoint - although the long swing bridges over ravines tested Mum and Sarah's trust. Not trust in the bridge, but trust in me and my Dad to not get them swaying around...

Rule Number 1: Send Dad first

We left the first valley floor, heading up through glacial valleys to higher valleys. The area has an average annual rainfall of 7m (!) but the weather was amazing, and stayed that way. Luckily!

Team Cope

5 metres before this a sign said "Danger of rocks falling"
Dad decided this was a good place to chat!

The track was pretty quiet, as there's only a limited number of bunks at each cabin - which means views like this can be savoured and not shared...

Pretty epic!

And after about 5 hours of non-stop climbing, we were at our first night's cabin: Routeburn Falls Hut. How's this for a view?

Our cabin at Routeburn Falls, at an altitude of about 1000m

We were all pretty glad to take our packs off - and get reducing their weight. Time to start cooking and get drinking that 3l bladder of red wine. All in the name of reducing carrying weight, of course.

Feeding the masses

And after a good feed, some good wine and a damn good game of scrabble (well done Sarah, pretty hard going to beat my Dad!) it was time to watch the sunset over the valley.

Catching some rays

Life starts pretty early in the huts - with rows and rows of plastic mattresses in big wooden bunks, as soon as one person is up everyone else follows suit soon afterwards. We let the masses get on with it so we could enjoy the trail in peace.

And peace we had! Here we are heading up to
the top of Harris Saddle, the highest point of the trail

Lake Harris

The views were getting better and better as we got higher and higher...

And higher and higher...

Leaving our packs at the emergency shelter at Harris Saddle, we made a dash up to the top of Conical Hill for a look down into the Fjordland and Aspiring National Parks.

Conical Hill View

And here's one of my favourite photos from the walk - spot my Dad enjoying the view:

Silhouettes

Heading up and over the Saddle, we came down into the valley of the Hollyford River, hugging the steep valley sides the whole way. Moving from open rocks, to alpine scrub and trees, and then down into forest - with the bright Kea parrots circling overhead and checking what we were up to. Throughout the three days, every view was worthy of a Lord of the Rings shot - with Sarah probably cast as a Hobbit.

Or a dwarf. Probably a dwarf. That's less offensive.

And there we are at our hut for the second night of the tramp, at the sides of Lake Mackenzie. After a quick dip in what is some of the coldest water I've ever known, we were back inside and ready for some supper.

Lake Mackenzie Hut

And here's where I slept. 28 years old. Married. And sharing a 4 bed bunk with my wife and parents. That's just not right...

Department of Conservation luxury accommodation!

With a fantastic (I made it) Thai curry for dinner, with rehydrated nearly everything. Lush.

And to bed - for a terrible night's sleep with all 32 people in the room kept up by my Dad's snoring!  But again, the next day's views made it all worthwhile...

Slow motion falls

Hugging the valley side further, we headed along to The Divide.

Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud

The first day had swing bridges and valley floors, the second was full of stunning vistas and lakes and this third and final day was defined by the waterfalls. Big big waterfalls.

A mere trickle

The Holidaymakers

Tramp nearly over, one last optional hill to climb: Key Summit. More lovely views. This is getting a bit repetitive now isn't it?

A Cope Frame

Me and the wife

And heading back down again to rejoin the trail...

Lush forest in the final kilometre

And there we are - a lot of photos in this blog, but it's been hard to whittle them down to that number. We've been lucky to have done a lot of hiking in some spectacular places around the world, but as a multi-day hike this is the winner for us. So great to be able to share it with my parents during their trip here - hopefully we'll still be tramping round mountains in 30 years too!

Routeburn Finishers 2013