Routeburn/Milford

Hello to everyone who is still checking this blog after a week of no activity or pictures.

We finished the Milford Track yesterday and now we are relaxing and resting our legs in Te Anau for a few days before heading south. Te Anau is a really pretty town. Like Queenstown, it is surrounded by mountains and is next to a huge lake, but is much more laid back than Queenstown. The weather is beautiful, so it is going to be a nice place to spend a few days.

Now I will back-track and talk about the hikes we just did. I'm sure that Jay's photos will be much more interesting than my description, so I will try and keep the description brief.

Both hikes (the Routeburn Track and the Milford Track) are classified as Great Walks by New Zealand Department of Conservation. This means that the hike is relatively easy and that the huts that you stay in on the walks are really nice. Most hikes in New Zealand have huts along the track that you can sleep and cook in, but these ones have running (cold) water, flush toilets, and gas stoves all provided. Great Walks also have to be booked in advance because they are quite popular and bunk space is limited.

The Routeburn Track is a 3-day, 32km walk. We had great weather for the entire track and we did not have a drop of rain until we finished the walk. I had a pretty bad cold for most of the walk, so it made it pretty challenging. On the first day, we walked along the Route Burn valley and then up to the Routeburn Falls hut. The hut gave an amazing view of the entire valley and the surrounding mountains and was situated right beside a waterfall. It was a very cool place to spend a night.
The majority of the second day was spent above the tree line. We walked up to a mountain pass through a spectacular alpine meadow and then did a side trip to get a better view of the surrounding valleys. Unfortunately, it clouded over before we made it to the top, so we didn't get much of a view. We then walked along a ridge for about 3 hours before descending to our second hut next to the beautiful Mackenzie Lake.
On the third day we climbed back up above the tree line and got amazing views all the way to the Tasman Sea. We then descended to the trailhead and caught a bus back to Queenstown. Just as we reached the trailhead, it began to pour rain, so we were pretty lucky to have such good weather for the track.

The next day we headed to sunny Te Anau to get ready for the Milford Track. My cold was pretty much gone by then, so we were feeling pretty energetic about the next hike.

The Milford track is very famous in New Zealand and very hard to get a place on. Only 40 independent hikers and 50 guided hikers can start the hike every day, so spots on the hike are very sought after.
To get to the hike itself, we had to take a one hour boat ride across Lake Te Anau, which was very pretty. The first day of the hike was very easy and only took about one hour, so we had a lot of time to hang out in the afternoon and evening. During that time, I decided to go for a swim in the Clinton river, which is the clearest and most beautiful river I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the banks are infested with sand flies, which leave very (VERY) itchy bites. So, I had a very refreshing swim but I am now paying for because I am covered in bites. On the first evening of the hike, it started to rain and it didn't stop, which made for a very wet second day. Fortunately for us, the Milford Track is supposedly the most beautiful when it is raining, and I can understand why.
On the second day, we walked through a valley with hundreds of waterfalls on either side. The track alternated between going through lush rain forest and clearings where there were views of the waterfalls along the sides of the cliffs. It was an amazing day.
On the third day, it was still raining quite hard, and, unfortunately, this was the day that we did not want rain. We did a two hour climb to the top of Mackinnon Pass and saw absolutely nothing. It was completely miserable at the top of the pass; it was pouring rain and there was a very strong wind. The hike down the mountain and through the forest was still very beautiful, but we were both pretty disappointed about not getting a view from the pass. On the third day, we also did a side trip to NZ's tallest waterfalls(525 m), the Sutherland Falls.
The third day of the hike was pretty exhausting, it was over very easy terrain, but we had to do 18km and had to be at our boat by 2:00. There were beautiful views, including two more amazing waterfalls, along the way and Milford Sound, where the hike ended, was breathtaking.

So there you have it. A little play-by-play of our last week. I'm sure the pictures are what you are all after, anyways. Those will probably be up tomorrow if you want to check back.

Erin