Routeburn & Greenstone Track Hiking Tri

Alas we did our first of the NZ Great Walks which actually involved tramping (First great walk was actually a canoe trip). And it was downright awesome! Back in December, when we were in the “lets do Great Walks” mindset, we found out the Milford Track, which might be the most lauded hiking trail on the planet., costs about $130 Canadian per person per night to sleep in the huts, and took 4 days to complete. That was prohibitively expensive, and the track was also fully booked until the end of our trip (July!) so we looked for the alternative. The Routeburn Track is described as “the ultimate alpine adventure, taking you through ice-carved valleys and below the majestic peaks of the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana” (DOC website), and is considered by some to be the poor mans version of the Milford Track. The trail covers about 33 km and takes either 2 or 3 days to complete. While it was still expensive even to camp on the trail ($40 CAD/person/night), its cost was at least manageable, and there was still plenty of available sites in late January. So we booked a one night stay at the Mackenzie Lake campground, roughly the mid point of the track.

Our plans kind of evolved when we found out how long and expensive the shuttle linking one end of the trail head to the other, so we decided to hike East to west (less common direction), and return to our car via the Greenstone Track. The Greenstone can be accessed about three km from the end of the Routeburn, and follows the Greenstone river through a valley of tussock flats and beech forests, eventually ending at the shores of Lake Wakatipu. This ultimately would turn our 2 day trip into a Ffour day trip and add another 65 km to the total distance. Because the last 28 km of our route was a gravel road between the start of the Routeburn and the end of the Greenstone track, we decided we would stash our bicycles near the end of Greenstone and bike back to our van. This turned out to have been a slight oversight on our parts.

Day 1 Hiking:

We stayed at an Air B&B the night before the hike about 10km west of Queenstown, and set out decently early for the trail. We drove passed the turn off for the Routeburn and headed for the Trail end of the Greenstone, some 20 km south along a gravel road. A lot of roads in NZ opt for river fords as apposed to bridges or culverts and what we failed to plan for was the chance that the road could be impassible due high fords from heavy rain fall, which it was. So we left are bikes about 12 km from the trail-end, accepted that we may be walking a whole bunch on our last day, and drove off to the Routeburn trail head to start our hike.

The first 13 km of the track starts with a steady climb through beech forests along the Route Burn (Burn is actually a real geographical feature and means a water course sized somewhere between a large stream and a small river). The track gains about 800 m in this stretch, but was easier tramping in expected thanks to the over maintained condition of the track. We were greeted at the brush line by the most ginormous back-country village we had ever seen. Between the hut, and a private lodge for guided hikers, the Routeburn falls area sleeps well over 100 people. We continued past through the village, up along big old waterfall, and into a wide open alpine meadow surrounded by rocky mountains know as the Humboldt Range; some with snow on them. It was very amazing The trail ascended up above a large kettle lake, encased by glacier topped mountains, and up and over the Harris Saddle.

From the saddle, the trail followed the contour of Ocean peak for roughly 8 km, all above treeline and running parralell to the Hollyford River. This section was the most interesting part for Lisa and I, as the trail got a bit rougher, and we were given a grand Vista of the Darran Mountains on the other side of valley. The trail finally rounded the mountain, allowing us the view of a very blue and inviting Mackenzie lake, our home for the evening, which was some 200m below us. The trail quickly weaved its way down a rocky ridge back into Beech forests, and around the lake. Again we passed a backcountry village capable of sleeping over 100 people and headed straight for the campgrounds on the side of the lake. We set up camp, jumped in the lake, and ate a large dinner. Sleep came early.

Because this hike is a great walk, it is really popular, and its also somewhat accessible for non-hikers in large part because of the guided hiking service (provide a real bed with blankets, chef-cooked meals, and pretty much provides everything besides extra cloths. Also costs over $1300 per person!). We figured more than 400 people a day are on the trail at any one time, which averages to 13 people for every km (if they are all walking in your direction, and you are going 4km/hour, you will pass someone nearly every minute). Also hiking the trail against the normal flow of foot traffic made Lisa and I a bit weary in regards to our desired levels of solitude. However, our timing must have been perfect as we passed a few hikers on the way up to the Routeburn Falls (probably less than 10), passed maybe another 20 people between the falls and the top of the Saddle, and 10 others the rest of the way (including passed the MacKenzie Lake tourist community). More math, but we probably only saw 10% of all hikers in more than half the distance of the entire trail. What i’m saying is we won and I am both happy and a bit petty about it.

Day 2-3 Hiking:

The next day we packed up and took off towards the Mackellar Hut on the the Greenstone track, some 18 km away. The trail once again followed the contour of a mountain along the Hollyford River, this time staying in the Beech forest. The trail was pleasant, more roots, rocks and, and waterfalls. We also chatted with an American on a sabbatical leave from his job as a physiologist with Facebook in Manhattan. It dawned on us very quickly that he could very well be, the reason we are all addicted to Facebook. Still he was virtually unhateable and the conversation was interesting. After having lunch outside the Howden Hut, which was cut short thanks to an angry cloud of sandflies, we headed off down the Greenstone Track.

The Greenstone Track was great but was much less remarkable than the Routeburn Track. Both days we walked about 20km. For the most part it traveled through a wide open valley grazed by cows, which reminded us of Alberta, especially of the Ya Ha Tinda area. What was different were the amounts of random waterfalls spitting out from mountains high overhead. Also they have mountain parrots. The highlight of this section came in the middle of the night. We were awoken by something landing on the roof of our tent, which I promptly punched. It kind of slide of the tent and flew away. I cannot confirm this, but it was almost certainly a parrot. Alberta has bears, wolves, coyote, and bigfoot, New Zealand has punchable mountain parrots called Kea (they are an endangered species, and there is only 5000 left in the wild). I’ve never really associated with apex predators before.

Day 4

The last 12 km of the trail were over very quickly. Much like the last two days, the river valley was very pleasant, and we were still not tired of looking at mountains. We then had another 12km to cover on the road along the side of Lake Wakatipu. Anyone who has ever been to Queenstown will know that Lake Wakatipu and its surroundings are beautiful , so that was nice. But 24 km is a long day when you don’t hike much, and it got hot. No wind and 30 degrees. When we finally got to our bikes we were wiped, but we hoped on the bikes and headed a couple km to the small village of Kinloch.

We decided that we probably should get some real food, and a beer so we stopped at the Kinloch Historical Lodge for dinner and a drink. We also decided that we wanted to sleep in a bed that night so we overpaid for a room at the lodge and had a nap. Eventually, say later in the evening, we mustered enough energy to get on our bikes and finish our journey with a 16km ride on a gravel road back to our car. Luck would have it that we were biking into a 45km wind pretty much the entire way. But we made it. Our stay was good enough, it had showers and free popcorn.

Its understandable why the Routeburn is considered one of the great tracks, and why so many people travel on it. Its also nice that NZ has hikes with infrastructure which can support this many hikers. Trails like these literally funnel tourists in, are built in a way that can handle them, and leave the less-traveled tracks like the Greenstone much less traveled. Lisa and I learned we are also in terrible terrible hiking shape, and if we want to punch more parrots, we need to train.Read more