February 8, 2009
Today was going to be my longest segment of the Routeburn Track. I started at Routeburn Flats hut and walked up and up, higher and higher. I passed an area where I huge landslide knocked down hundreds of trees. I continued to cross several small mountain streams across swing bridges. The trail was built to a very high standard. After about two hours, I reached Routeburn Falls hut, right at the edge of the tree line. As I marched steadily into the mountains, I was able to see more and more of the valley open up below me.
Routeburn Falls hut would have been my desired location to spend the night before, but it was booked solid. That’s okay. I still helped myself to use the toilet and refill my water bottle (not from the same source of water as the toilet, of course) before continuing up into the mountains.
The higher I got, the cooler the weather got. I was happy for my awesome merino wool sweater. It was lightweight and kept me sooo warm. I wish I had it that day I was stuck on the Abel Tasman Track waiting for my clothes to get delivered. Of course, if I did have it at that time, it probably would have just been in that pack I was waiting for. Doh.
For a short time, I walked to one of the hut wardens who was walking along the trail. He moved FAST. He wasn’t carrying a big pack, of course. He wore shorts, but didn’t look cold. I guess it takes a special breed of person to do his job. I was quite happy with all my layers, thank you very much.
Once I was past Routeburn Falls hut (and the nearby Routeburn Falls themselves), I was past the tree line and the character of the landscape completely changed. Now I was surrounded by alpine meadows, and big tussocks of spiky grass. The Route Burn was still here, too, but it was reduced to a narrow stream, tumbling over rocks before spilling over the falls and into the gorge below. Maybe some panoramic photography will help illustrate the scene (click to enlarge image)?
The trail continued into a mountain pass called Harris Saddle. The scenery was stunning. The sky kept filling with gray clouds, however. I feared that I would soon be rained upon.
Much of the upper parts saddle was filled with a large lake called Lake Harris — the source of the Route Burn. The trail kept going higher, though. I walked part way up a cliff overlooking the frigid waters below. Amazing.
As I approached the top of the saddle, it started to drizzle on me and I wasn’t able to see nearly so far. I put the waterproof cover on my pack and took far fewer pictures. At the top of the saddle there were a few tarns and an emergency shelter which I ducked into to eat my lunch. The altitude here was 1220 meters above sea level. Yesterday morning I started at the Routeburn Shelter at an altitude of about 450 meters. That’s an 800 meter climb! The slope of the track wasn’t very steep, though. The walk was actually very easy.
After lunch, the trail crossed over from the lands of Mount Aspiring National Park to the famous Fiordland National Park. This trek would be the first of my three sojourns into this massive and spectacular national park. The trail flirted along the top of the Hollyford Valley for a long way. Across the valley there should have been a glorious panorama of mountains (see this image from Wikipedia). I didn’t see any of it though. All of the mountains were obscured by fog and clouds.
I don’t exaggerate when I say this track was both popular and very easy to follow. Once I got over the Harris Saddle, the number of people I encountered was astonishing. I encountered two or three tour groups being lead over the mountain. One tour group seemed to consist entirely of slow-moving, white-haired, Japanese grandmothers who barely made space for me as I tried to get past them. Some of these tour groups had their own private huts on the track. Tramping in New Zealand was certainly an industry.
Not all my encounters were so frustrating, however. At one point, I found some cute Japanese girls labouring to get up a hill. I told them “ganbatte!!” (“good luck!”).
Although it was still foggy, it wasn’t raining anymore and I started taking pictures again. Something weird was happening, though. All of my photos were turning out yellow.
It’s like the white-balance setting on my camera was way out of whack. I’m quite sure I set it to “cloudy”, but it didn’t seem to work. I think the sky really was yellow, though. At first I didn’t understand, but later I learned what was really going on. Someone in the hut told me about the horrible fires in the state of Victoria in Australia. Even though they were worldwide news, it was the first I had heard of them (news travels slowly when you’re backpacking). The smoke from these fires had been blown by air currents all the way across the Tasman Sea and was messing with my camera here in New Zealand… 2000 kilometers away! That’s just scary.
Eventually, I reach a viewpoint above the emerald waters of Lake Mackenzie. From here, the trail zig-zagged down the mountainside and I shed 300 meters of altitude in short time. As trail plunged back below the tree line, I found myself in an absolute treasure of a forest. Every surface, except for the trail itself, was covered with a verdant and thick carpet of moss. Simple photographs can’t capture the beauty of that place.
Finally, after about six hours and thirteen kilometers of walking I reached my destination, Mackenzie Hut, tucked in alongside Lake Mackenzie. Here is where I took one of my favourite photos in New Zealand, with rugged peaks and brown clouds full of smoke from Australia. It looks like somewhere out of this world.
The hut was crowded that night. Lake Mackenzie Hut was apparently the largest hut in Fiordland National Park with fifty bunks. I played more cards with Syd, Astrid, and some guy from British Columbia that night. More euchre was played, of course. In addition, we played some more of the Backpacker card game and some Wizard, which I’m absolutely terrible at.
I had a can of Thai Green Curry for dinner that night. Some people thought it was silly that I would bring a CAN of food on a trek. It was so heavy! But, I thought it was a great idea. The trek was only two nights, so I only needed two dinners. As always, you always have to pack away and carry all your rubbish with you. You’re not allowed to leave your garbage at the huts since they don’t have any road access — if you left your rubbish there, it would have to get flown out on helicopter! With a simple stomp under my boot, I was able to flatten the can and make it easy to carry out.
–
Rob Szumlakowski
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
























