Key Summit, Routeburn Track

Drove from Te Anau to The Divide today, to walk the very start of the Routeburn Track. The whole 3-day track winds 32km over two spectacular glacier-sculpted sandstone ranges and NZ’s Fiordland’s Darran Mountain granite peaks. It’s wild and I’m in awe of the (beautifully bonneted) folk who pioneered routes here in the 1880s. We just went up to the first summit, a 3hr there-and-back, but was spellbound from the start. We climbed through a magical green world of ferns and moss dripping beech forest, with high mountain peaks peaking through the gaps, to emerge in a huge mountain range panaroma. One of those pinch me days. We camped in Upper Eglington, making friends with a resident robin, and cooked tea in the heavy rain, before curling up under canvas. Perfect.Read more