Speccy photos from the Routeburn

The photos say it all really. Even with the rain, it was beautiful and all our little group enjoyed it.

DAY 1

DAY 2 

A very welcome sight - Lake Mackenzie down in the valley with our hut at the far end - still about an hours walk away.

Yes - this is the track on the left, up and around by the orange marker.

Lunch time shelter hut at Harris Saddle.

The view of Lake Mackenzie from the front of the hut. Some of the younger (less wise) walkers went swimming in the lake. We could hear them screaming in the cold water from the track when we were way up on the side of the mountain slopes.

 

DAY 3

Sheryl in front of Split Rock. We squeezed our way through the narrow gap - about 60cm wide mostly.

 

"The Orchard" - native Ripponwood trees which have planted themselves so evenly space they look like a human-planted orchard. These are one of the few native deciduous trees in NZ.

 

Debbie stopping to the smell the flowers. I forget what this is called but it does have a beautiful fragrance as well as long spikes in the flowers so you have be careful if you want to keep your eyesight intact!

Erland Falls - At 174metres tall is NZ's tallest water fall. The track goes right across the bottom of it. It was really pumping and pounding with a lot of water due to 117mm of rain the night before and who knows how much over the preceding days. The force of the water creates a very strong wind and blows spray with little ice particles horizontally at the base. We all got wet, although our wet weather clothes gave some protection. There was a flood route lower down but we all walked over the bridge and clambered around the rocks at the base of the falls. It was rather exhilarating!

 

DAY 4

 

There are many of these animal traps along the Routeburn. They are part of the stoat and rat trapping program which is undertaken to try and prevent these introduced pests from causing the extinction of NZ's native birds. Prior to their introduction there were no predators in NZ. Apart from a very rare tiny bat, NZ has no native mammals as well as no snakes. The birds are now beginning to increase in numbers.

 

The view - solid white cloud. I do believe that somewhere out there, there are massive mountains...

 But the mossy forests were beautiful.

 

Harriet walks the Routeburn

This wander to New Zealand was inspired by Sheryl's brother's photos of the Routeburn track, which is one of the 10 great walks of the world. (The Overland in Tasmania is also on this list). The Routeburn has now been walked and conquered. It is every bit as beautiful as expected, even though the views were somewhat compromised by cloud and rain for a good part of the  4 days. Our best day of weather was the second day which was the longest walk of over 11 kms. 

It is important when doing tramping (New Zealand for bush walking or hiking) to eat regularly during the day.

And to have a good evening meal.

And to try and sleep well, which can be a challenge in a dorm full of strangers! Our final night included a symphony of snoring from several nocturnal "musicians".

And then you hope that your gear has dried over night and putting damp clothes and boots on the next day is not very enjoyable.

Happy New Year!! Where has summer gone?

Oh my ... the first week of 2014 has already gone! It has been an epic epic week here in NZ. Good free/cheap internet has been hard to find, and we have been rather busy.  We have sailed on boats at Queenstown and Milford Sound and walked over a mountain range for 4 days and bogged the motorhome and dug it out and got muddy and wet and dried out. Been having an amazing fun time with my fellow wanderers and Harriet has been trundling along with us every where. But it has rained every single day!!! Summer - where art thou?

This is me, Michelle and Debbie in Wanaka on News Years Day, and yes, it was freezing and windy! Brrrr.

Currently sitting in Te Anau, which is as far south as we are going, in the public library which has the best and fastest free internet so far! There are 20 people in here on there phones and laptops and ipads catching up with facetime and emails and stuff! My other wanderers are buying food for our last few days and we are heading north, out of the mountains to the east coast, searching for summer which seems to have decided to give NZ a miss this year.

While we were in Queenstown, the 101 year old steam ship, Earnslaw took us to Walters Peak Station and back for a sumptuous meal in luxurious surroundings in the middle of a storm.Yes - I know the photo looks calm and the water is a beautiful blue - but it really was blowing a gale out on the lake and raining and the water really is this blue even on a cloudy day. The water is NZ every where is like this. It does not need to reflect blue sky. It looks blue because of silt particles from  glaciers. Amazing.

 

Sand on New Years Eve - It is the journey that counts

From the snow to the sand on the same day. We didn't go swimming.

Bruce Bay is a common stop for people on the way south from the glaciers. There is nothing there except a wind swept beach and piles of stones written on and arranged by visitors.

Harriet and our fellow wanderers left our message along with all the others:

It is the journey that counts, not the destination.

Snow on New Years Eve

News Years Eve  - what a bunch of party poppers we all were. But - we had a fantastic day as you will see below but were too tired to stay up to see in the New Year, and we didn't even have a wine to toast it in even though there was plenty in the fridge.

Helicopter flight over 3 glaciers! WOW! We had a brief warm sunny moment for coffee and then on to a helicopter to fly over Franz Josef, Victoria and Fox glaciers.

 
 



If you walk up to Fox Glacier you see the bottom of the glacier:

 

If you get in to a helicopter:

 



You get to see this!!!! and more...

 

Keas



Our third day - was spent driving, you guessed it - in the rain!! We drove over Arthurs Pass and down the west coast. Spectacular!

 

We met cheeky keas, who are a large parrot, a bit bigger than a currawong, with a seriously long curved beak, who are very cheeky and will steal food if they can, just like currawongs. They can also wreck cars by pulling the windscreen wipers to pieces. They are an olive green colour with bright orange under their wings when they fly.



 That is the road down there on the bridge.

 There are many wide braided river beds like this. Flat grey gravelly with ever changing fast flowing rivers of water surrounded by steep mountain sides that rise sharply upwards.

Harriet goes rock climbing

Castle Hill is a limestone formation in the valley on the way to our Lake Pearson campsite. Very bizarre. A bit Picnic at Hanging Rock - ish.

 

Harriet went exploring. As did we and many other people. Not only can you walk all around these rocks but it is a recognised location for rock climbing. They have even put two toilets up among the rocks for the climbers.