Fjords, Mountains & Meatloaf

Even though Anna and I had made a big trip around the South Island 15 years ago (yip - it was pretty early days), it was literally "around" the outside. Neither of us had really been through the Mainland, and along with wanting to do one of the Great Walks (in this case the Routeburn), this provided the motivation for this trip.

Picking up a car in Christchurch, with a slightly groggy head from too much fun at Pomeroys the night before, we headed straight out into the Canterbury Plains, driving the long way to Lake Tekapo. Not that there is a lot of driving to be done, the steering wheel being necessary about once every 15 minutes. Just as well the scenery is there to keep you awake. You can't get away from the contrast between the gray Alps and the (unnaturally) green plains. Though amidst the somewhat depressingly irrigated farmland was a heartening huge free range pig farm with what looked like plenty of happy (and very big) pigs.

However, as we headed out further into the countryside, there was one discovering that stayed with me for the rest of the trip. Outside of the cities, there appears to be one radio station that dominates all possible frequencies - More FM. It didn't matter how many times we scanned the frequencies, all we seemed to get was More-bloody-FM! And it becomes something akin to psychological warfare, as you caught yourself driving along humming to Meatloaf or Elton John…

Just as well the scenery was so distracting. You couldn’t help but let your jaw hang when driving through the MacKenzie Basin. Surrounded by mountains, with fingers of mineral-blue lakes stretching out from the Alps towering to one side. The first night we stayed in Tekapo – not much to do here but enjoy the views and try to work out which restaurant is going to be the least unpleasant experience. Of course there was the stunning night sky. We drove out somewhere to get completely away from lights, turned off the car lights and were pitched into completed darkness. No wonder the stars looked so awesome.

The next day we made the short drive around to Mt Cook National Park, were we staying the night. Lucky for us, we had an awesome view of Mt Cook the whole day – apparently you can visit there and never get a glimpse. We took a couple of walks out to glacier terminus (lakes at the end of glaciers). Including to the Tasman Glacier where a dodgy tour company tried to tell us we shouldn’t drive out to the car park as the road was rough. Stop in at the National Park Office and they said go for it. The other was a tricky 3-hour return walk where we regularly surprised about the casual wear people had. Two Asian tourists took the cake though, he had a dinner jacket on and she had massive high heels. We assumed that they weren’t going to get far.

It’s a pretty awesome place Mt Cook Village – if you haven’t been there, you should made the effort to do so.

The next day we had to drive down to Queenstown to return the hire car and catch our transport to Te Anau. Driving through Central Otago it was strange to find yourself thinking that the scenery was boring, but it was compared to the MacKenzie Basin. And Queenstown, as it always is, is pretty unappealing.

Arriving in Te Anau, we headed into what we had feared all week – the approaching inclement weather. A great big front had been promising to come up from the south, and just as we arrived in Fjordland, so did it. Not what you want when you about to head off on a 3-day tramp…

However, before that we had a day out kayaking on Doubtful Sound. Ironically, this trip had been ‘doubtful’ ever since we booked it. The company said they needed at least 4 people to make it worth their while. So fortunately, when we called them up the night before, they had 6 booked. And just as well, as the day was awesome. It starts with a long cruise across Lake Manapouri – and all the way could see the brooding rain clouds over the mountains that we had to go over to get to the Fjord. The whole day we didn’t see anybody else or any other craft on the Fjord - it was like we had the place to ourselves. And the rain just made it even more stunning – with waterfalls strung out all along the cliffs. The guide told us just two days ago that they were all dry. You have to remember that rain is the natural environment in Fjordland, so we were in fact very lucky. We spent around 5 hours cruising around the Fjord, we saw a mini landslide just in front of us, and also caught sight of a couple of Little Blue Penguins. And the final reward at the end of the day was the cloud lifting so that we got to see the Fjord open up a bit. So at the end of the day we were soaked, but happy.

The next day was the beginning of the Routeburn, and that rain wasn’t shifting. But again, walked through the Beech rain forest (Beech just may be my favourite tree), it felt right. Though it was a bugger to fight the wind and rain up to Key Summit, which is suppose to have spectacular views, to be only just able to see past your hand. After 5 hours of climbing we finally reached our destination for the night – the DOC hut at Lake MacKenzie. We were pretty sodden by this stage, but had to work out a strategy for nabbing a bed and getting your clothes as close to the fire as possible to dry. This became a bit of spectator sport, as people hovered around waiting for someone to remove there dried clothing from a prime spot. Though it was all drama at one stage when the “burning sock” call went out, and people rushed to pull their socks away from being draped on the chimney. One poor sucker had to throw away is ‘well done’ sock.

What we didn’t expect to see when we arrived at the hut was an 8 month old baby! We ended up speaking quite a lot with the couple – from Aussie – and we even more surprised to hear that they had already been tramping for 3 days!! So they were going to be tramping with their little girl for all of 6 days, and had a little sling system by which they carried her. She was an amazing little kid – she was just about walking without any support, and was for obvious reasons pretty popular in the hut. There is not much to do in the hut apart from cook your meal, talk to a few people and play some cards. Though the night was broken up by the show put on by the hilarious DOC ranger – Clive he was and he looked just as you would expect, short shorts and knee high socks. And eccentric, as he told us all these stories about the hut and the track. It was pretty cold, but a benefit of the MacKenzie hut is that the sleeping area is above the living area, so you get some ‘warmth’ from the kitchen and fire. And were amazed that there was hardly any noise from the baby. Though the same couldn’t be said from the American who snored all night…

The next morning it first looked like the weather could be lifting. But by the time we were heading out, it was raining again. The second day is all alpine, as you climb above the tree line and walk across the top of the Holyford Face. We were one of the first to head out, and has it turned out, got the worst of the weather that day. Later that night it seemed that we were the only ones to get caught in hail. Walking along the face in the mist and the rain, I couldn’t help but liken us to Frodo and Sam (and for fellow Lord of the Ring nerds, in Emyn Muil). Of course, I’m sure Frodo and Sam wouldn’t have been humming “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that”…

Our hard slog was rewarded though as the cloud did start to lift and it wasn’t long until we were walking in the sun. This also meant that we were able to look down onto the Holyford River and across the other side of the valley, where the mountains looked like they had received a fresh dusting of snow. We reached the Harris Summit (the top of the walk) just in time to get a dusting of snow ourselves. Which meant any attempt of going up for the view at Conical Hill would have been a waste of time. So we started down towards the Routeburn Valley through more awesome scenery, as the Routeburn River started threading its way down from Lake Harris. We actually timed it pretty much perfect, we reached the Routeburn Falls Hut just as it started to bucket down again.

The position of the Routeburn Falls Hut was pretty stunning – the Routeburn Falls (funnily enough) along one side, and then a view down the Routeburn Valley in front of you. But it was a lot bloody colder – the sleeping quarters separate from the living area and the fire being hard to get going. Especially when a big group of Israelis decide to camp out in front of it but without any interest in adding any more fuel to it. Israeli tourists – always the same.

The next morning we were very fortunate in that it was absolute stunning – not a cloud in the sky. So we took the opportunity to walk a little way back up the trail – well, I decided to run to make it back up to the Summit again. Of course, a dangerous thing it is to run after a frosty night, as I found out a couple of times slipping on ice. But when we you have views like we had, no slip was going to disturb you.

All that was left with us now was to complete final part of the track, down through Beech forest again and down through the Routeburn Valley. Again, we were reminded how much more spectacular the rain forest is in rain than in sunshine.

We spent out penultimate night in Glenorchy, which is at the end of Lake Wakatipu and just a short trip from the end of the walk. There isn’t much to Glenorchy, but it’s the type of place that, when you visit, you just can’t not start trying to think about how you might be able to live here. Though we did stick out a little bit when we headed down to the pub. I might have been the only guy not to be drinking a quart of Speights – when I asked for a pint of Black Mac, I think the guy at the bar had to remember where the tap was.

Eventually the next day we had to head back to Queenstown – but we relieved ourselves by finding the awesome Atlas Bar with both Emersons and Invercargill on tap. And Anna had booked us in for dinner at the Botswana Butchery Restaurant – which I think she did on purpose considering I’m vegetarian at the moment. But we reflected on what was an awesome trip – you can really see why they brave the winters down here. We are already planning on next walk…

Pics here.