New Zealand 2011 trip, Day 30, Feb 1st: Routeburn Track, Day 1 - Routeburn Falls Hut

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2:24pm, Routeburn Falls Hut

Back tramping! And on one of NZ's premier tramps…

Up with the 6:50am alarm. Slept ok, but was anxious about getting up in time for the car shuttle. Wendy cooks breakfast (eggs with pre-cut tomatoes & onions), while I pack the car. I arrive back in time to cook some eggs.

I head down at 8am to wait for the car shuttle lady, and send a text after 10 minutes. She replies back that she is late, and will arrive at 8:25. I head back upstairs to finish packing until then. She arrives, and we swap cars. Her car is a manual with left handed stick shift! Cool! I once drove a left handed stick shift in Scotland. She and her business partner will drive two cars to the other side of the Routeburn track, and hike the whole 32km track back this afternoon/night! I'll be dropping her car off from the other end, which she'll drive out with. Cool system. The weather forecast is for rain and high winds tonight, which will make for a nasty hike for them.

Before leaving, she makes sure she can leave the key inside and lock the door. Turns out you need to hold the door handle up when closing it to fool the fail-safe mechanism. She's a pro. She'll leave some of our bags containing valuables in a locker at the Holiday Park in Te Anau too.


Wendy looks out the window of our hostel room, while I wait at the car. I look back at our room's open window...

Finally we load the new car with our gear for the tramp, and head towards Glenorchy ~9am, retracing the scenic drive we made to start the Rees-Dart track last week. We stop at the DOC in Glenorchy to throw away our yogurt from the morning car ride, and confirm the weather forecast: bad storm coming tonight, but clearing tomorrow by noon. Not bad, if we start early today and start late tomorrow. The 1st day's leg is a short 7.5km walk, so we should easily beat the afternoon storm.

We arrive at the Routeburn Shelter trailhead, just after a bus has dropped off a load of hikers. Having locked the keys in the old Subaru (had to do the same door handle trick), we start hiking ~10:30am under pleasant skies, immediately crossing a swing bridge. The trail is wide, smooth, and well graded through a beech forest. Lots of bridges on this trail!


Gorgeous skies while driving to Glenorchy again. The trailheads of several tracks, including the Rees-Dart and Routeburn is up this way...


Looking back at the 1st swing bridge on the trail. Wendy found a little bird...


The trail was extremely smooth. We saw some people hiking in flip flops. Another great thing about NZ Great Walks: You're never far from a flush toilet, even in between huts...


Another swing bridge...


A brief open meadow...


We couldn't believe how many bridges there were, even across small streams. On the Rees-Dart, we'd be scrambling across these...

We pass several hikers on the trail, and arrive at the hut in just under 2.5hrs (1pm), beating the advertised time of 2.5-4hrs. The last hour of the hike was a steeper climb with more rocks, but still tame compared to the Rees-Dart. There is a big ol' luxury hut here for guided groups, who pay tons of $ to have their packs shuttled, meals provided, and sleep in hotels. The "freedom walkers" hut is pretty darn nice too, and has a gorgeous vista of the valley. We pick bunks from the room near the restrooms and have a view out the window.


The trail finally started climbing a bit...


An open view through the forest...


We arrived at the hut before the predicted storm hit. Hurrah!

With bunks claimed, we take a short walk to the Routeburn Falls lookout, just behind the hut. When we return, lots more hikers have arrived.


We explored Routeburn Falls (not much else to explore around Routeburn Falls Hut)...


We worked our way down to a pool, which would have been fun to bathe it, if it was hot out...

We're hanging out in the common room now, sipping hot honey water from our 2nd pot of water. There are 12 gas burners here. Got lots of time to relax today. Wendy is reading her podcast news on the iphone.

A storm warning is in effect from 6pm tonight to 9am tomorrow. But for now, it's still just cloudy, and getting chilly out. The hut is fairly well shelter, should there be a big wind storm later.

Brought the 14er cards on this hike, since I knew there'd be lots of free time today…


We have all afternoon to chill out at the hut. Glad I brought my 14er cards ($6.95) this time, as we played several games...

7:24pm, Routeburn Falls Hut

My belly is full of food and hot honey water. We've gone through 6 thermos-fulls.

We played a game of gin rummy. Wendy won by an order of magnitude. Then we played a few hands of cribbage. I was surprised how fun and easy the 14er cards are to play with! A lot of themed decks can be hard to play with, but not these. After cards, Wendy reads more, and I work on a crossword.

The clouds thicken, close in, moisten up, and start pouring rain. The wind starts gusting too. It's cold outside, and in the dorm rooms, but warm in the common room, thanks to the wood stove and 48 people gathered.

This crowd is much different than the Rees-Dart. There are lots of families, kids running around, and plenty of seniors. With 48 people, it's loud here. Wendy and I have our own table against the window, where we've hung out all afternoon and evening. For dinner Wendy has the Habebes kebab, and I have WG on tortillas, yams, and some PBJ with chocolate and tortilla for dessert.

We both feel pretty full when a woman stops by and asks, "Do you want any mints? We have extra." After dinner mints? That doesn't make sense. "Mince pie?", I ask. Mince meat. We say yes to whatever it is, and walk over to their table. There is a large ground beef pattie. We cook it up in a pot with cheese. It's tasty, especially for a free post meal snack, though we did end up with the styrofoam container to carry out the rest of the trek.


Wendy enjoys a Habebes kebab that we brought from Queenstown. The hut faciilities were great...

I've got a pretty runny nose, but there's unlimited toilet paper in the bathrooms, and you can flush it down the toilet. Convenient. Wendy is playing solitaire.

The hut warden's pow-wow at 7:30pm has just started… 45 people staying tonight. The water on the trail is drinkable from the streams. There's an 8:30am weather report in the morning. Don't leave bags laying outside during side hikes, cause the keas (mountain parrots) are smart and strong at ripping through gear. Keas are a protected species too… The Routeburn is a Scottish name.

We've sipped so much honey water, we're betting who will make the most trips to the bathroom tonight. At least here the bathrooms are attached to the same building as the bunk rooms, with a walkway covered by a canopy. That's the biggest plus over the other huts we've stayed at.

I'm super tired. Might as well start heading for bed. But first we have to hand in our hut tickets to the warden. Wendy's not tired today, after all of her extra sleep in the car yesterday.

I wonder how the car shuttle people are doing in the rain and wind.

Ok, one more game of gin rummy before turning in…

9:37pm, Routeburn hut

I beat Wendy in gin rummy, and taught her Rummy 500. Time for bed. No alarm tomorrow, since we need to wait for the storm to clear.


A look out at the cloudy skies at 9:45pm...

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