and I thought it was supposed to be summer…
Our tent – the morning of the third day.
Three days on the Routeburn track. The first day we set out from Routeburn shelter in drizzle and followed an easy path up through mossy trees (which are different to hairy trees!) The walk up to Routeburn Flats – where we stopped for hot soup & lunch was an easy one – with a couple of swing bridges across the Route Burn river. We had goods views across the flats (the drizzle had stopped for a short while) towards the Route Burn falls.
From the Flats we headed upwards to the Routeburn Falls hut (it took about an hour) where we took off our wet clothes, got a couple of bunks & headed to the warmth of the hut (?) someone was in the process of getting the stove going anyway!! Then the rain started – it didn’t stop all night – banging away on the tin roof. The hut was just out of the tree line with views back down over the flats.
We awoke to heavy rain – there was lots of general hanging around in the kitchen area of the hut to see if it would ease up, but in the end we had to go for it! The walk up to Harris saddle was basically in a stream the whole way – no chance of keeping th old boots / feet dry.
Squelch, squelch, squelch!
There is a shelter at the hop of the saddle, where you can ‘linger & admire the views’ – fat chance – there was bascially a group of wet & bedraggled trampers huddling out of the rain & trying to dry out whilst having lunch.
We stayed high from the saddle – the walk down to Mackenzie Lake takes about 3 hours – ‘why rush when you can enjoy the views and the sun’ says the brochure…it took us 2hrs 45 – no views – strong winds – rain – lightening & thunder. Great fun!
When booking the track about 2 months ago, we thought it would be a good idea to camp at the lake. It didn’t seem like such a good idea when it was pouring with rain, you had nowhere to keep your dry stuff dry & you where soaked to the bone, but camped we did.
Nick was great & cooked tea in the rain whilst I tried to keep our tent warm and toasty (we got it to about 17 degrees – warmer than the hut the night before!)
The rain turned to snow overnight (down to 3 degrees at this point) – about 8 inches of snow. It was quite strange waking up to everything covered in a thick white layer – very peaceful & very beautiful – but down right cold.
The worst part was having to put the cold wet clothes & waterproofs back on…then the boots – from which I had poured water from…burrrrrrr.
It snowed pretty much constantly the whole day – about 4 hours from the Lake to the Divide & a bus to civilisation & warmth!
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I’d quite like to do the walk again, to admire those views which are there and to linger a while in the sun!
Tags: New Zealand, Travel, Trek
Jenni
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