First Day on the Routeburn Track

One of New Zealand's great walks is the Routeburn Track. It is a three day hike with stays two nights in mountain huts. Our morning started with breakfast (we purchased at a grocery) in our room in Queenstown.

We got picked up by a shuttle service early Monday morning and drove 1.5 hours to the Routeburn shelter trailhead. We were on the trail by 10 am ready to see the beautiful scenery that this hike is known for!

 

 

The first part of the hike followed a beautiful stream with aqua colored water - similar to some of the lakes we've seen in Glacier National Park.

There are waterfalls all along the hike.

We hiked until mid-afternoon when we arrived at Routeburn Falls hut. The hut was very nice - simple but clean. We were able to get a section with two bunkbeds for the four of us.

We enjoyed sitting out on the deck - we arrived just in time as it started raining within an hour. Given the forecast we had heard when we picked up our permits, we felt really lucky that we arrived at the hut before the rain began!

The huts in New Zealand house people from all over the world who have come to tramp New Zealand's great walks. We met people from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Guam, England, France, the U.S. and more. It's quite a community feel - there are stoves where you can prepare your "backpack" dinner and breakfast. More importantly, everyone is eager to learn about other hikes you've been on previously or the ones you plan to do in the future.

Overall, the people you meet are adventurous - many were traveling for months with plans to go onto another country after their stay in New Zealand. They are traveling with the contents of their backpacks and don't seem to yearn for a more conventional lifestyle (or at least what we'd call conventional). Everyone is friendly which is good considering the very close quarters you are in the huts.

Our meals are simple - but everything tastes really good after a long day's hike!

Sleeping is interesting - it helps to have earplugs as there is sometimes quite a chorus of snores!

 

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