I left you guys after describing my slightly fruitless climb up Conical Hill. The rest of the day wasn’t hugely interesting actually, due to the wall of cloud pushing up against the saddle and completely obliterating the view. It took about three hours to get from the saddle to Lake Mackenzie Hut, although it only took about 2 to get to the point where we could see the valley, Lake Mackenzie, and the hut (which is kind of depressing after a day of walking…you just want to be there but you still have to climb over rocks and tree roots for an hour before you’re there!). We were lucky that it never tipped it down while we were walking; we only got sprinkles here and there that were enough to make us put on our raincoats (but not like it is right now–people are walking into the hostel completely drenched just from getting out of their cars).

 Since it was only about 4 o’clock when I arrived, I had plenty of time to kill at the hut, although I didn’t do what a couple did, which was go to sleep at 5, not eat dinner, and then wake up at 6.30 in the morning. After dinner the hut warden gave us a talk, which all hut wardens do on the Great Walks. Clive was absolutely hilarious, and I swear he wanted to be a standup comedian before he became a warden on the Routeburn 15 years ago. He started out with the weather forecast for the next day, which was “wet rain in the morning, followed by dry rain in the afternoon, with a few snow showers and some sleet.” It’s fortunate that one didn’t come true! He then regaled us with the history of the Routeburn Track followed by a few stories that I guess were supposed to teach us fire safety. The first involved a woman who decided to dry her trainers by putting them on the fire itself, which ended in them bubbling, Clive throwing them outside before they caught on fire, and her having to finish the track in a pair of his gumboots that she later had to return to the Dept of Conservation. The second truly intelligent woman to come to Lake Mackenzie Hut decided to hang her wet underwear on the grill next to the stovepipe. They managed to fall into the grill and began smoking. Everyone in the hut tried to get them out, but since the grill wouldn’t come off, it was a bit difficult. Clive concluded the story by saying “So I’ll never forget the night of the burning knickers!” Needless to say, all of us were in tears by the end of the thirty minutes and probably burned as many calories laughing as we did walking during the day.

I wasn’t nearly as cold that night as I was on the first, which I guess can be attributed to the fact that Lake Mackenzie Hut was lower in altitude and in a valley. At the Falls Hut, I slept in a Tshirt, 2 thermal shirts, 2 pairs of longjohns, a pair of pants, socks, gloves, and a beanie. I didn’t have to wear the gloves and a beanie at the Mackenzie Hut, which is better. I’ve still decided to buy a silk sleeping bag liner to warm it up a bit for my next few walks!

I left Mackenzie Hut much later than all but three other walkers, since my bus out of the Divide at the end of the track wasn’t until 5.45pm. This also had the added advantage of giving the clouds time to clear before I got to the bushline, which was about 30-40 minutes away. When I got to the point where the trees cleared, the clouds were just hanging over the tops of the Darran Mountains across the valley from me, and the effect was just astounding. They hung over the peaks, giving them much more atmosphere than they would have on a completely clear day. Every few feet I had to stop to take yet another picture of the rocky peaks and the valley seemingly miles below them. These were definitely the best views of the entire walk to that point.

About halfway between Mackenzie Hut and Howden Hut are the Earland Falls, which plummet 174m off of a cliff into a small pool below. The track passes nearly underneath via a bridge and some climbing on rocks. This was by far the coolest waterfall I’ve ever seen, and I was so close to it that my raincoat had little rivulets of spray running down it. Had I packed a lunch, I easily would have stopped here to eat it, even though the falls were so loud that it would probably give me permanent hearing damage.

Another 1.5 hours and a lot of slogging through mud later, I got to Lake Howden Hut, which was beautifully set on the shores of–you guessed it–Lake Howden. Unfortunately, it was also swarming with sandflies, so I ended up eating my lunch inside. Then I did possibly the most intelligent thing so far on this trip; as I walked down to the shores of Lake Howden with my backpack on, I tried to take my camera out of my raincoat’s pocket and dropped it about a meter onto the rocks below. When I picked it up it looked undamaged (and there was much rejoicing) but then I turned it on. The screen was as pictured to the left: essentially, some sort of abstract painting full of black & pink blobs. My poor little Canon Powershot that served me so well for two years was completely destroyed, since there’s no way I can control any settings or look at any of the pictures I’ve taken. Sure, it still takes pictures, but since I had it on some manual settings changing the exposure and stuff, I can only take pictures in certain lights and hope they still come out. Needless to say, I was really quite upset and my wallet was even moreso the next day when I went out and bought a new one, since I can’t tramp/kayak/do a lot of other things with my big Panasonic. This one is a shock/waterproof Olympus camera (although not the newest model–too expensive and not stocked in Te Anau) that is hopefully Kristin-proofed as well (thank you James and my mother) and will make it through the rest of the trip. At least now I don’t have to worry about putting my camera in a waterproof housing…

I walked the rest of the track with Lowell and Karen and really enjoyed having company after walking the first part of the day alone. We climbed the Key Summit, which is important because it has rivers that flow to three different coasts: the east, west, and south. The views at the top were the best of the day: 360 degrees of mountain ranges and superb valleys in between them. The top of the summit was actually quite a bog with lots of boardwalks across them, and there is a very well-placed tarn right in front of all of the mountains, which made for some good pictures on my very carefully handled Panasonic. We could have stayed up there much longer than we did (about 15 mins or so) because we still made it to the car park less than an hour later and over 1 3/4 hours before our bus was to arrive. This gave us plenty of time to wash our boots and wave our hands as the sandflies came in for the kill.

The drive back from the Divide was a scenic wonderland in itself. The Divide is about 35kms from Milford Sound–the most famous fiord in Fiordland–and about 85 from Te Anau, which is the closest decent-sized town. I stared out the window in amazement at the Eglinton Valley and many other amazing glacier-created geological formations until I made myself feel quite carsick (the road is also very windy), after which I stared out of the front very intently.

So, overall, the track was an amazing experience that I would definitely repeat if I had the time/money (the huts are more expensive than most others due to the popularity of the walk)/energy. The scenery was second to nothing I have seen in New Zealand thus far (although I really feel like I say that about everything I see), as you might be able to tell from the ~130 pictures I posted in my Routeburn album. And who thought that I would be saying something like “hey, I only had to walk 33kms in 3 days” this time last year as I labored in front of the computer trying to make my operating systems project work? Certainly not me!