Hiking the Kepler and Routeburn Track

Wednesday  2nd March:  Brilliant sunshine, sunny cold and 5°C to 15°C 

Te Anau tLake Mackenzie Hut:  Bus Dep Te Anau 9.45am,  arr The Divide at 11am. Hike 15k: 6hrs

Today was the start of the Routeburn.  Highlight was reaching The Summit on a brilliant sunshiny day - blue skies, no clouds, spectacular scenery - the best we've had so far in New Zealand, including last years' hikes.

We're all up around 7am (well some of us are) and its still dark.  We all have a leisurely breakfast, we had muesli, Jenny and Graham had porridge followed by mushrooms, Donna and Milton had mushrooms bacon and tomato with muesli and yoghurt.  There's plenty of time to pack, repack, unpack and re-organise.  Our bags are overflowing with food and wine again.

At 9.15, it's time to hand back the keys and walk the 5minutes to the DOC where our shuttle is waiting for us.  It's full when we get on and it leaves at 9.45am.  Some hikers are dropped of at Te Anau Downs ready to do the Milford track, the rest of us stay on to do either the Routeburn or a day walk to The Summit.  It's 11am when we head up the Routeburn Track.

It's an absolutely magnificent day.  About 15°C and a well graded ascending track.  After only an hour we're at the turn off to a diversion up to The Summit.  Last time we were in New Zealand doing the Routeburn in reverse it was cold, mist, rainy, cloudy and there would have been nothing to see if we had climbed to teh Siummit.  Today is spectacular. So we have a pow-wow at the sign.  It's 1hr return to the Summit and Donna Ian and I decide to do it, and 15 mins to Howden Hut where Graham, Jenny and Milton decide to have a leisurely lunch.

The Summit walk is spectacular - to repeat.  And it's not really an hour return, just 15 minutes with a further 5 minutes to the lookout to the snow patched Humbolt and Aisla Mountains and Lake Marina in the hanging valley.  It's 1pm when we get back to Howden Hut where the Hutters have already had lunch.  It's busy.  Howden Hut is the crossroads of the Routeburn and the Greenstone Caples Track.  Add to that the day trekkers and there's a few hundred people passing through around lunch time.  But we make time for a cup of tea on the available gas rings inside before we all leave at 2.45pm.

The afternoon is glorious.  Cool but so sunny.  The upward track is quite stony with many running streams, and it's a bit slower than I remember.  In about 1 and a half hours we reach the Earland Falls where the troops have waited for Donna and I. They're about 124metres high but still spectacular. Moving on, the track is still going up.  Another hour and we reach The Orchard - an open patch of tussock grass with a few apple looking trees - not sure what they are or how they got there. The views across the valley are stunning with a clear view of mountains and snow.

Donna and I linger at the rear chatting.  It seems a long way down with slippery rocks and stepping stones heading down.  The trees become Hobbit like with moss and lichens hanging off the almost dead trees.  It's 5pm when we pass the private Lake Mackenzie Hut - clearly not our with the lights on an lounge chairs in a large sunny room.  Another 1 minute and we're at the Lake Mackenzie Hut.  We thought it would be full but it's not.  We're in teh bunk house at the back and Ian and I have a quick cup of tea, then boil another pot of hot water to put in our pooch pouch foe a wash.  It's not appropriate in teh toilets and there's no wash room, so we take our clean clothes and our pouch of water to the wood heap and have an almost real shower using a cup and the pooch pouch.

Back to the kitchen with time to blog.  I've had to carry my computer this trip instead of leaving it behind like the Kepler Track at Te Anau.  It's relaxing with a coke bottle of wine and cheese and crackers - almost civilised.

Ian cuts up dinner - carrots, onion, capsicum and tomato with our Back Country mince.  Yum.  Donna and Milton have Alfredo pasta and Graham and Jenny have a Back Country Mince concoction.

Clive, our Hut Ranger appears.  We're all asked to go outside.  He's so quiet we think it will be only a 5 minute talk.  WRONG!  He has the driest sense of humour and has us all in fits- he must be straight out of Dads Army.  It was interesting to find out that Sir Edmund Hilary had practised on the Darren mountains which we can see as a beautiful backdrop behind Clive on a magic evening.  He rattles on about all sorts of interesting stuff about the glacier, and issuing fishing licences for people to fish in the lake - whene he knows theres no fish, and he seriously informed us about the hole in the outdoor deck for the fire escape ladder and how to pick up a bread roll if you've dropped it in economy class - not sure what it had to do with Lake Mackenzie hut but it was very funny.

After a glass of Grahams firewater and a chocolate, we're off to bed.