Sleeping in a hut shared with 40 people isn’t the greatest, especially with the inevitable chorus of a few snorers. But as we stirred and started out of our bunks, an excited hiker asked if we’d been outside yet. No, not yet. He then gushed that the day was fine and perfect. Sure enough, bright blue skies greeted us.
We hit the trail after a breakfast of porridge (that’s oatmeal to us). I’d noticed the night before that the swollen lake was spilling over the trail for about a 100 meters about 200 meters from the hut. We stayed in our flip flops for that in the hope that the trail would stay dry and give our shoes — still a bit damp from the day before — a chance to dry out. The water was cold as expected, and got close to 2 feet deep in parts. It was a good move — we started uphill soon after and had dry feet all day. I made Leena take a picture of me as we climbed just to prove that I too carried some stuff. (And good thing I brought a running fleece to be highly reflective on the trail…)
After climbing most of the first hour, the trail abruptly broke out of the forest and above the tree line. It was like coming out of a tunnel.
A look back down at McKenzie Lake — you can see the roof of the Hut just left of center at the bottom of the frame.
After an hour and a half, we came around a 270 degree corner with awesome views in every direction. We’d finished the bulk of the days climbing.
We had a decent view for our picnic lunch. Leena soon after…
We reached the Harris Saddle just past noon. It’s essentially the midpoint of the track and the high point as well. There’s a side trail up Conical Hill. I left my pack with Leena at the emergency shelter and scrambled up another 700 vertical feet. A shot looking up at the top — very steep trail!
On this perfect, fine day, the views were spectacular. In the distance you could see all the way to the Tasman Sea. The small white horizontal line in the middle of the frame is the surf breaking on the beach.
The view back to the east.
Glacier fed lake as we headed on from the Harris Saddle. The Routeburn river tumbles out of the lower end of this lake.
The trail passed a huge boulder left behind by a glacier. Note that the trail goes through the opening at the bottom right of the frame. To give you an idea of the size of the rock, no, I didn’t have to duck to get through…
After hiking down for most of two hours, we got our first view of the Routeburn flats. Between us and the flats is 900 vertical meters of cascades and waterfalls.
We stayed for night two at the Routeburn Falls Hut, situated right at the tree line just below the first series of waterfalls. A view from the “back yard”.
Feeling a bit hot and, uh, sweaty, I took a dip in the falls. Sourced mainly from glacier runoff, the water was just a bit cold!
A view from the “front porch” of the Hut as night decends. Since we near the 45th parallel (south!) in summer, night came really late — this shot was taken right at 22:00. Interesting that Portland is just north of the 45th parallel in this hemisphere.
