Day 1 Thursday 16 November 2017, Queenstown to Glenorchy
Our bus we booked to the start of Routeburn Track was at 11:30 am at the Station Building.
Before heading we decided to have a famous Fergburger as lunch in Queenstown.
There was almost always a long queue there so wisely this time we ordered burgers on line
and picked them up and enjoyed at a nearby park leisurely.
It was cool in the morning downtown Queenstown.
We were walking with tall and heavy looking backpacks on our shoulders as if we were professional hikers
from accommodation all the way to town centre.
One young Scot carrying a guitar and two young girls doing Routeburn Track were with us on the bus.
He got off from the bus first at a shop near Glenorchy and we continued our travel to the destination.
We arrived at the entrance of the track almost 1pm when the sun was super intense.
Just like my vivid memory from 2014 green moss covered lush beech trees were embracing us with their open arms.
Permanently snow capped high mountains back dropped far away.
First part of the track was shady and fairly flat for about one and half hours until we met a junction for Routeburn Flats Hut
and our hut, Routeburn Falls Hut.
We crossed swing bridges over the clean and clear affluent turquoise rivers and streams.
Soon we realized we lost sight of two young girls who said they were doing Routeburn Track.
First day of our grandeur 7 day's hike was an adjusting phase typically.
I was struggling with a heavy backpack sweating on the incessant inclines for the rest of the hike
until we arrived at the first hut.
Me and Suze were talking to each other, shouldn't it be short and easy today?
We saw many day hikers and people who were almost finishing their Routeburn hike our opposite direction.
We walked 8.8 Km for 3 hours this day and arrived at Routeburn Falls Hut around 4 pm for the night.
Altitude at the hut was 975 meters high.
Dazzlingly pouring-down prosperous water falls popping into sight when I looked upon from the hut.
The hut looked nice and new and well constructed functionally.
On arriving at the hut we had to allocate ourselves at our chosen bunks and write our names under the numbers
along with our booking numbers on the board.
We had two separate bunks rooms, two rest rooms, and kitchen and dinning areas.
We were impressed with clean flush toilets with a small mirror and a soap dispenser on the wall.
You couldn't imagine flush toilets and a real mirror or soap in deep mountain huts in Australia.
In each room it accommodated roughly 25 people and two set of bunks were separated with others
and on each bed there was quite thick and slick plastic covered mattress.
Eddie was as usual busy taking photos of waterfalls as soon as we settled at our bunks.
I was sitting upon rocks with Suze chilling out looking down at the Routeburn Flats and gorge with my back toward the falls.
At nightfall the temperature dropped a lot as expected.
We soon forgot about the extreme heat from day time.
At 7:30 we had a meeting with the ranger and he talked about general information about the track and requirements
we should abide by and announced the next day's Heli Ride was cancelled over the Harris Saddle.
So to speak the track was cleared.
We saved another 300 dollars again as well as we didn't miss the precious chance for us to be able to walk on the part of the track.
We were extremely lucky once again we realized.
The first night at the hut, people were amazingly quietly sleeping even though I didn't have a good sleep as usual.
I felt warm during the night so I stripped off one by one (socks, fleece jacket ,fleece pants except thermals inside my liner.)
Day 2 Friday 17 November 2017, Routeburn Falls Hut to Lake Mackenzie Hut
Moning came and I heard Eddie walk out slung his camera over his shoulder for the sun rise.
I tried to stay in bed as long as possible but decided to start the day early a good idea.
I washed myself and went straight to the kitchen, prepared our breakfast.
I saw some people were sleeping in the kitchen abandoned their bunks.
After breakfast we packed and tightened our shoelaces and off we went for the second day
of Great Walks.
Not everybody's heading our way from last night's hut.
I have noticed people were not hurrying like they did in Overland Track.
As the track was not that daunting with half shorter days you don't need to rush and also
people came here to experience with more like touristy interests.
Suze said she saw two girls from our bus ride passing the hut on the way to breakfast.
We guessed they couldn't book our hut and instead they stayed at Routeburn Flat Huts.
We didn't meet them again at Mackenzie Hut which meant they had to go further to Lake Howden Hut
on the second day.
It must have been a long tough day for them to cover almost 22 kilometres a day.
Luckily we were more organized to book and manage to do a reasonable distance daily.
Our second day was absolutely our highlight out of the total Routeburn track in every aspects.
I try to remember as it were and I'm afraid I won't be able to give them all full-life and lose it.
Sometimes it's like a blur with the gist of patched clearer moments and more obscured ones clustered
in my memory bank.
Unlike first day of forest it was an open and airy track of boulder and tussock basins which was
unbelievably spectacular.
Harris Lake, Harris Saddle....absolutely beyond description.
We kept on talking about our luck on and on that we were able to leave our feet marks instead of heli ride there.
I like feeling snuck in peaceful hidden forest ways too but open tracks with high altitudes allowed us to overlook clean views
over the mountains and to give a moment to feel myself small and vulnerable in the giant mother nature.
Suze loved poking snow mounts inside with her stick and gushed about the purest blue colour hidden in it.
I loved looking at her innocent and a bit childish young girl side like this.
We giggled together about silly small things a lot for no reason.
Just because we were happy being there together.
We had lunch at the top part of the mountain after all the excitements gone.
After all the morning magic aura dispersed.
Forgetting easily about how lucky we were with the bright sun above our heads
we trudged a bit wearily from constant strong heat.
It reminded me that I had not sighted any single animal dropping on the track.
On each side of track I spotted small rectangular metal boxes with a small opening at one corner
every now and then.
Later I learned these boxes were to catch stoats and weasels to protect birds in danger in NZ.
A little later we found ourselves at a high point where we could look down
at this beautiful blue lake with the Mackenzie Hut.
We were instantly mesmerized with the view and at the same time
I started anticipating our swim in there of course too.
Eddie spent a long moment taking in this beauty by photographing numerous shots from there.
Unforgettable beautiful afternoon was waiting for us down there to my amazement.
Our distance for the second day was 11.3 kilometres and it took us 5 and half hours including lunch.
We loved spending every moment in Mackenzie Hut.
It was all combined with the day's memorable progress of hike with perfect weather along with the pristine environment.
I have never seen such a beautiful lake which made the hut totally complete and perfect in every aspects.
Lake front was shallow without any ripples with crystal clear from near and the most exotic turquoise colour from far
and easily accessible via pebble beach.
Dramatically formed lush forest and snow capped mountain tops a bit further at the far end of lake side
made a perfect picture.
In fact the hut itself was older than first hut but I liked it much more.
Like first night there were two separate bunk houses.
We chose a back bunk house where 4 bunks were openly placed side by side without any boundary
at the four corners of the room.
I ran and jump into the water as soon as we arrived there.
It was freezing cold but my urge to swim was far stronger.
It's not surprising that a moment's dip in the purest water in the world made me feel the same way.
We spent the long warm afternoon strolling around the area ,found a beautiful camp site near there
and another hidden corner of the lake where a bird was cooing calling us.
It was the most fantastic place with this absolute beauty on this perfect sunny day.
People were enjoying spending time at the lake sitting on the rocks here and there or around hut.
It was one perfect seamless day in my whole life for sure.
NZ sun was setting very late that day as well.
Until almost 10pm it was bright outside.
Day 3 Saturday 18 November 2017, Mackenzie Hut to The Divide
Everybody seemed to sleep very well the night before and welcomed the day happily.
Morning was as cool as usual and we started our hike as soon as possible.
Most people headed to the opposite way from us.
We soon climbed steep tracks until we met dramatically magnificent Earland Falls.
It was one of the most unique waterfalls in my opinion.
Even though the picture down didn't do the justice.
It shielded the perimeter with its icy cold hands it was terribly cold and wet to death around there.
But as soon as we walked out of it, it got warmer and warmer.
After the fall the track was ongoing descent until we reached Lake Howden.
Compared to Lake Mackenzie this lake was just average to me.
It's more like a cove with high level of water rippling at the shore
and lots of sand flies swarmed there attacking us.
Blissfully unaware of these nasty sand flies we settled at a picnic table near the lake where we cooked
and ate our lunch which was kind of stupid at hindsight.
But we didn't realize it fully until we were on Milford Track.
It was another warm sunny day too.
There was one side trip option to Key Summit on the way to The Divide.
It was 1 and half hours return trip.
Eddie was a bit keen to do that but we objected.
I wanted to save my energy and prepare for the next day's upcoming Milford Track.
Last part of track was uncharacteristic.
From Lake Mackenzie to The Divide was a total of 12 kilometres.
We arrived at The Divide around 1pm.
Our bus going to Te Anou was supposed to pick us up at 3:30pm.
There was no way we could call the bus company to change bus times as there was no reception
for the mobile phone so we wait for the 1:30 bus.
One old man we met from Lake Howden was luckily waiting for the bus and we were once again luckily able to get on that bus
to arrive at Te Anou 2 hours earlier than our plan.
We washed our dirty and smelly clothes from 3 day's hike and prepared food for the next
4 day's Milford Track.
Hot shower and sleeping in a proper bed was not bad at all.