New Zealand Part 5: Routeburn Track and Mount Aspiring
We finished the Milford Track last week and spent a night in Queenstown before setting off on our next excursions to explore Mount Aspiring and hike another Great Walk - the Routeburn Track.
We have visited McDonald’s more times on this trip than I think either of us have in the past 10 years, but its trusty WiFi and outlets have turned us into frequent patrons.
Every time we pass a Mitsubishi L-300 on the road we check to see if it’s the rival van (Tassie). You wouldn’t believe it, but as we pulled in towards the glistening Golden Arches… we finally saw Tassie in the McDonald’s parking lot in Queenstown! I screamed “Grady look!!” In hindsight, that maybe wasn’t the best thing to say as he was driving so he slammed on the brakes, but when we saw the unmistakable “Keep Tassie Wild” on the back it was no doubt the rival van.
Last time we saw it over a month ago was in Auckland - 18 hours driving and a 4 hour ferry ride from here. This was too good to be true.
From our table inside we could see the new owners struggling with some apparent mechanical issues. They couldn’t seem to get the rear tailgate to open. It was fully sunny around 1 pm, but the man put on a headlamp before going into the van presumably to see if he could open it from the inside. I knew it didn’t have enough natural light! (Remember, we didn’t buy for a lot of reasons, but a big one was that the windows were painted over…)
He emerged frustrated and we were very happy with our decision. The wildest part was when the van pulled away we could see that there were three adults (3!) sitting on the front bench seat and likely living in it… yikes.
Our feet needed a little recovery after a long, wet hike out of the Milford Track so we opted for a plan that would be a little lower key the next few days. After comparing our remaining time here against all of the objectives / hikes we’d picked, we decided we should go to Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park.
The 3 weather sources we checked were all in conflict - ranging from partly sunny to full clouds to heavy rain, but we decided to chance it. On our drive to Mt. Cook we ran into a few van problems. The first was pretty benign with just a loose screw on the roof box that required a new tool to fix, but the second was a mysterious creaking noise in the suspension. Our suspension was inspected just over a month ago so it seems odd, but we identified that the upper control arm ball joint may need lubrication. We remembered that the French guy we bought the van from had some WD-40 equivalent he left with us so maybe this has happened before… After a little WD-40 we were back on the road and listening intently for any more mysterious noises from the van.
The drive into the park was stunning. It’s the closest terrain we’ve seen here to Alaska with the huge expansive valleys and the big hanging glaciers of Mt. Cook and Mt. Sefton in the distance. It felt big.
We decided to book a campsite by Mt. Cook to be closer for sunrise and sunset since the freedom camping sites were much further. Before pressing book, we thought for a minute about tent camping on the ridge near Mueller Hut, but the gusting winds shaking the van in the car park helped us to quickly veto that idea.
We hiked to Kea Point first and then hiked the Hooker Valley Track. Both were beautiful, high bang for buck hikes, but the Hooker Valley Track is just stunning. Maybe I’m biased because I felt like on the Kea Point trail I was 1 step forward, 2 steps back with the wind impeding my progress. Grady keeps calling it my favorite hike…
As we crossed the first swing bridge on the Hooker Valley track a gust of wind made me feel like I was going to blow sideways. I’m so glad we didn’t tent camp up on the ridge…
The sunset was spectacular. There were only a few other people up at Hooker Lake and we were outnumbered by the Kea!
We scurried back down to the White Horse Hill Campground as the twilight faded and the stars came out.
The next day we explored Tasman Lake and read a bunch about the history of the mountain at the visitors center.
After a dud of a sunrise, Grady went out to take sunset photos but I opted to sit this one out because the winds were howling again. The pictures look like they were worth it, but those don’t show the wind and spiky plants he had to battle to get there!
The views of Mt. Cook were beautiful for another sunrise, but fleeting as the clouds soon rolled in. Targeting another weather window, we booked a campsite for Wednesday night at the first hut on the Routeburn (another one of New Zealand’s Great Walks) so we headed south to start that track.
We did a quick reload on food (and WD-40) in Queenstown for the next few days of backpacking. Grady has only ever driven the road from Queenstown to Glenorchy at night and I’ve never been past Queenstown so we were both equally excited for the notoriously scenic road. The water color was stunning. It’s the same lake as in Queenstown, but the color transitioned from a deep blue to a bright turquoise as we approached the head of the lake which is fed by a glacial river. After stopping at a number of pull offs to capture photos, we finally made it to the Routeburn to start the track at 5:45 pm. It was late, but we were only hiking in 5 miles and had plenty of daylight left.
The early evening light made for a really picturesque walk through the forest to reach the Routeburn Flats Campground. It was quiet and peaceful, made even more special by the filtered light coming through the dense trees.
We didn’t think this campsite would have a view, but were pleasantly surprised that it did.
Plus, our arrival was pretty perfectly timed with dinner so we didn’t have to battle the sand flies for as long before retreating to the safety of our tent. We brought in a heavier dinner for the first night with raviolis, real marinara sauce, and cheesy bread. It didn’t disappoint.
This hut and campsite aren’t as competitive for bookings as two of the others on the Routeburn - at the Routeburn Falls and Lake Mackenzie. Those would have booked up not long after we booked the Milford Track. Plus, we weren’t doing the full Routeburn but our own adaptation of it.
We packed up camp and got an early start around 6 am so we could catch sunrise at a viewpoint up higher on the track. We made coffee there and enjoyed a really peaceful morning watching the sun rise.
We ate breakfast outside of the Routeburn Falls hut and continued up to Lake Harris, past the Valley of Trolls (our destination for the night) and to the Harris Saddle - the highlight of the trip.
At the saddle there were two day use shelters to provide refuge from wind & rain. One was for independent walkers and the other, for the Ultimate Hikers! They’re back again on this track. Of course their shelter was brand new and fully stocked with tea and coffee for them.
We spent a lot of time at the saddle enjoying lunch and just soaking in the panoramic views.
We could tell when some other Americans came by the saddle because they joked that it sounded like Harris Teeter. It was much more stunning than any Harris Teeter we’ve ever been to!
After several hours at the top we started to backtrack over to the Valley of Trolls for the evening. Honestly, it was appropriately named - the big boulders nestled in a tight, lush valley looked like the kind of place where a bunch of trolls and hobbits would live!
It was pretty muddy and wet on the use trail entering the valley. The camping rules in this area require you to be 500m from the Routeburn and a distance from other marked trails. After searching for a while we finally found a rare dry spot in the valley that complied and posted up for the rest of the afternoon.
I think the most remarkable part of this valley was how the grass goes all the way up to the tops of the mountains, but yet is interspersed with huge rock faces. We associate those grassy rock faces so much to New Zealand so it was beautiful to experience them in a remote setting. The only sound we could hear (for a while) was the sound of the waterfall at the end of the valley.
To our surprise, a steady trickle of trampers followed behind us - all searching for increasingly rare dry spots to camp as the afternoon went on.
We opted for an even earlier wake-up the next day to make sure we could be back at the Harris Saddle by sunrise. The muddy trails would take longer, especially in the dark, so we left camp at 5:15. It was frigid when we woke up and the tent fly was not only completely soaked from condensation, but nearly frozen. Grady stuffed the dripping tent into his pack and we figured we’d deal with it later.
The valley protected us from the wind, but as soon as we neared the saddle the breeze picked up and it felt much colder. The temperatures were made bearable by our *mostly* dry shoes thanks to some very careful headlamp navigation of pre-dawn valley! We couldn’t have timed it better though.
The Harris Saddle is the highlight of the Routeburn track, one of New Zealand’s Crown Jewels of “tramps”. I could say dozens of things about how beautiful it was, but the most special part was being the only people up there for over an hour. There’s something amazing about the quietness of the alpine in the morning and maybe even more so in a popular place where most people don’t get to experience it in this way.
The remote and rugged Darran mountains transformed before our eyes in the 30 minutes of alpenglow before sunrise. The early wake up was so worth it!
With cold hands and feet we scurried back to the day use shelter after sunrise to make coffee. We saw the first people of the day and chatted with some who had coincidentally camped near us.
Eventually we left the Harris Saddle and started back down the way we came. It was even more beautiful descending through the valley than when we had hiked in.
We ventured back to the Routeburn Falls Hut for a quick snack break, descended to the valley past our initial campsite, and made it back to the car. We passed many Ultimate Hikers along the way whose trail etiquette was anything but ultimate.
We celebrated another fun backpacking trip with beers and lunch in Glenorchy. We originally planned to stick around there for sunset and take a day or two off from hiking, but we came up with the crazy idea to hike into Mt. Aspiring National Park instead. There are two huts we’ve been eyeing and the weather looked like it might line up well to do them both.
We decided to go for it. We drove back to Queenstown to restock on food and shorten the drive the next day. We camped at our favorite (“our”) camping spot and made pancakes for breakfast in a local park.
The forecast called for rain early in the day so we enjoyed time at a cafe in Wanaka - waiting for the weather to clear. We put the destination in Google Maps around 4 pm and were shocked that the 50 km (~30 mile) was projected to take 2 hours! We got moving quickly, but the dirt road must have recently been graded as it only took half the time. It was mostly a breeze other than Ms. Steven’s first stream crossing and the startling sight of deer farms! We have since seen a few more deer farms and it’s wild to us that they exist.
We started hiking around 5:15 pm and while it sounds late (again), it made for some beautiful lighting along the way - and we still arrived in time for dinner!
This hut was built in 1949 and it’s cool that it’s still the original structure with just a bunch of upgrades. It was built between 1946-1949 and required 160 loads of stone carted by horse and sledge from around the valley and 40 tons of timber carted up the valley!
It was an even more beautiful setting than we thought and the hut capitalized on all of the views with these enormous windows. It was also really cool how many families were there with young kids. It’s a more accessible introductory hut because it’s pretty close to the trailhead (~6 miles), but still was neat to see 4 different groups in there with kids aged maybe 2-8.
We woke up early to see the sunrise and get an early start towards French Ridge Hut, which is first come first served.
The first hour and a half of the hike was beautiful, but freezing. The super cold dew and frosty grass tips made my trail runners very wet, very early in the day. There was a spot we could’ve opted for a river crossing to save some time, but we instead chose to keep our feet “dry” by walking an extra 2 km to take a bridge. Turns out we should have crossed the river because my feet were fully wet from the dew anyway. The hike was mostly a valley walk until we started the Big Climb (TM) after the bridge. The Big Climb (TM) was climbing roots and rocks for most the way up. It was never level footing, but it wasn’t technically difficult or exposed and made for a quick ascent!
As we went higher and higher up the ridge we could see the little red Liverpool hut in the distance across the valley and the glaciers around us started looking a whole lot bigger.
Once we finally reached French Ridge Hut we were amazed by the 360 degree views! We knew that the mountains behind French Ridge would be stunning, but it’s hard to capture the full view in pictures. We treated ourselves to beers & chips which felt so special because we hardly ever hike those in with us!
These huts are set up with wide bunk beds that just have a bunch of summer camp style mattresses on them. At this hut it was 20 mattresses in one room that would be incredibly cozy if full. Plus there’s the one outhouse and even though it has an amazing view, that too is cozy for 20.
Nobody else showed up at the hut for hours so we explored around and played chess. 11 other people showed up in a steady trickle from about 4:30-8:30 pm and the later folks to arrive were so glad there were still enough bunks! We ended up chatting mostly with a few doctors from the UK, two people from Austria, and a few Aussies, but there were also people from Slovenia and Michigan in the hut.
With shared bunks in 100 square feet and one light switch to control the entire hut, we weren’t going to fall asleep until everyone else fell asleep. Everyone stayed up way later here than any other hut we’ve been to, but as a bonus we got to walk outside and see the stars super brightly illuminating the sky around us.
The next morning we enjoyed sunrise and then began our hike out. We were the last group to leave (only ones to clean the hut), but ended up catching everyone else from the hut at the river crossing. This time we decided to ford the river since it was warmer out and it made for a quicker exit. Plus, it iced our feet after the near 4000 ft of downhill already. We continued our hike out of the valley & couldn’t stop commenting on how special the West Matukituki Valley is. The Caribbean blue water and hanging glaciers overhead are hard to fully put into words or photos, but it’s so beautiful to see.
On our drive back towards town we realized that the Super Bowl was probably in the last quarter of the game. We googled the score and it was tied with a few minutes left. We kept checking score updates and found that there was one bar in Wanaka that was playing the Super Bowl. We arrived in perfect time to catch overtime! Even though the bar was only half full, it was the biggest gathering of Americans we’ve seen so far. It was funny how many of them were wearing Chiefs/49ers gear - they clearly packed well for vacation.
We thought we’d take a little time off the next few days (again), but saw that the weather looked great for a one nighter in Glenorchy and convinced ourselves to do one more hike in this stretch…
We hopped in the car and headed towards the Earnslaw Burn hike. We refilled on food (again) in Queenstown and planned to arrive to the trailhead around 3. The hike was supposed to be about 2500 ft, 7 miles, fully on trail - a piece of cake. We based our timing on it being a normal trail, but the term “trail” was really generous. We were crawling under/over logs, crossing streams, and climbing up roots.
Plus, the GPX route we’d mapped didn’t pick up the little undulations in the trail so the vertical ascent / descent was low.
It’s safe to say we completely underestimated this one and it was not the easy, mellow hike we’d planned on. After 10 days in a row (and 15 of the last 17) of hiking/backpacking, we were regretting our decision to not take a few rest days (again). I don’t think the cloudy horizon was helping boost morale either…
We pressed onward and finally after 3 frustrating hours of unrelenting roots/trees to climb up and over, the view emerged.
We were so fortunate that the clouds had given way to beautiful lighting on the glacier and finally felt like the hike was worth the effort.
Early during our hike out the next morning we independently commented that our legs felt a little tired and we were excited for a few days off. We motivated ourselves with talk of a plan to get Fergburger & Mrs. Fergs gelato when we were back in town.
Grady slipped a few times on the way out with thankfully no consequence, but my legs must’ve been a little more tired than I thought. I slipped on a rock when crossing a stream that never normally would be an issue and bashed my left shin into a rock.
It swelled up big with a lemon sized, purple lump so Grady super calmly went into wilderness first aid mode. I was really worried, but he helped get things under control. After 15 minutes, a few ibuprofen, and a cold soak of my leg in the freezing stream, we were moving again on the trail. We were optimistic and carried forward because I could continue hiking and the pain seemed to be improving. Grady took nearly all of the weight from my pack and gave me both trekking poles, which helped a ton. We hiked the remaining 5+ miles out over the same undulating, frustrating, and difficult terrain we complained about on the way in. The swelling reduced a lot by the time we reached the parking lot, which further boosted our spirits. We went to get it checked out & consulted with various medical resources and confirmed it’s thankfully just a bad bruise. The advice was to do the standard RICE method and get some rest the next few days (finally!) We celebrated the good news & reduced swelling/pain with our long awaited burgers at Fergburger and gelato at Mrs. Fergs. It was a high point to our otherwise eventful Valentines celebration.
We’re planning to take it easy the next several days to let my leg heal and our bodies generally recover from 15/17 back-to-back days of hiking. Our plan is to go to the southernmost part of the South Island to celebrate Grady’s birthday before doing one of the backpacking routes we’re most excited about next week in Mt. Cook.
The new words we learned recently are: Chemist for pharmacy, puffer instead of puffy (as in, I’m wearing my puffer jacket), and Maccas for McDonald’s. Although, maybe the McDonald’s one is more universal… we don’t go to McDonald’s very often in the US.
I thought it’d be fun to write down our favorite NZ snacks so far too. You can find these in the van most days! Mrs. Higgins Shortbread Cookies, Local NZ Cherries, Whittakers Chocolates, Flavored Mexicano Corn Chips (i.e. healthy Doritos), Anzac Cookies, and Muesli (like homemade Granola that is our breakfast most mornings).
We’ll share more soon!