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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

New Zealand: Routeburn-Greenstone Track

Scenery near the start of the Routeburn
Scenery near the start of the Routeburn

The next bout of activity I'd planned was the Routeburn Track, which starts just north of Glenorchy (itself to the northwest of Queenstown) and takes you to over the mountains to a point called the Divide on the Milford Road. There I planned to pick up the Greenstone Track, taking me back towards Glenorchy, but ending some 25km of dusty road and a good day's walk from the start of the Routeburn (and my car). 'Never mind, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it,' I thought, and jumped in the car for Glenorchy.

Lake Harris
The rugged beauty of Lake Harris

Trekking the Routeburn

Lake Harris
Beautiful Lake Harris sits just below the mountains of the Harris Saddle

Day 1 was an easy two-hour wander to Routeburn Flats, a lovely river flat where the sandflies weren't too bad (at least compared to the Hollyford) and the views were wonderful. The weather, in an atypical display of sympathy, had cleared to sunny and hot, and the skies got clearer and clearer as the walk went on, which I appreciated as I would have been high enough to be right inside the clouds if the weather had turned.

Routeburn scenery
Routeburn scenery

Back on the Greenstone

Lake Howden
Lake Howden, where the Routeburn meets the Greenstone

The Greenstone, while undoubtedly a lovely walk, did rather bore me. The reason? It's another leafy, forested valley walk, and I'd had quite a lot of that already on the Kepler and Hollyford Tracks already. The solution? I hoofed it and walked all the way to the last hut, Sly Burn, in the one day, on top of the 11km or so from the last part of the Routeburn and the side trip up Key Summit. The views were wonderful most of the way, even though I was a bit tired of river valleys, and although my body ached and my feet throbbed, I made it to the hut to find there was one spare bed in the hut – mine! – and a refreshingly freezing swimming hole down the river bank. I almost felt human after my evening rice dish, and fell asleep on the soft, warm mattress the second I hit it.

The Greenstone Valley
The Greenstone Valley
Stark scenery at Glenorchy
Stark scenery at Glenorchy, where Lake Wakatipu signals the end of the track