29th-31st December 2008: Routeburn Track

We did our first NZ Great Walk in the company of Mike, Lara, Rich, Lucy, and two boxes of wine that we hauled up the hill. All well worth bringing along.

We armed ourselves with a brand-new Gore-Tex waterproof for Sophie and a big breakfast (hurrah for gluten-free Eggs Benedict) and boarded a coach for a leisurely ride to the Routeburn Shelter. The coach ride itself was stunning, along the side of the very blue Lake Wakatipu and past a series of snow-capped mountains. We also saw the valley that was used for Isengard in the Lord of the Rings films.

By the time we'd admired the shelter and taken the obligatory start-of-trail photos, it was almost 3pm when we started walking. The first day is under 4 hours though, so we made it to the very shiny Routeburn Falls hut in plenty of time to reduce the weight of wine before the next day.

The first and last days were mostly through beech forest. The woods down here don't mess about - the trees have parasites growing on them, and both trees and parasites have a generous covering of moss and lichen. No space is wasted where something could grow.

Day 2 was the most spectacular day, with the whole day above the treeline crossing the Harris Saddle. While not as blazing hot as the day before, we had clear skies and amazing views; we also nipped up Conical Hill (a short side trip) and admired a glimpse of the far-off sea while trying not to get blown off the peak sideways.

My favourite view of the holiday was probably the one that took in the wooded valley leading down to the flat, grassy Route Burn valley bottom, with snow-capped mountains in the background. It's not everywhere you get all that in one eyeful.

Lake Mackenzie hut, the second stopover, was slightly less brand new than Routeburn Falls, but came with a warden who entertained us at length with his hut talk. Somehow the old chestnuts about weather forecasts (if you can see the hills it's going to rain; if you can't see them, it's already raining) still raised a chuckle.

The final day we had our first taste of Fiordland rain. The wet stuff in this area is legendary, but we got off quite lightly - a mere 4 hours of yomping downhill before we were back in civilisation. Lots of small streams were swelling quite impressively already, and we could see how the stories of wading through waist-deep water came about. Highlight of this day was the 174m Earland Falls; a rain-swelled waterfall we didn't so much see as experience, with the track taking us through copious spray. Tim was heard to say this was the best waterfall he'd ever seen. More on that later.

We reached the Divide shelter around 1pm and spent a chilly hour and a half waiting for our coach ride out, trying to dry off along with a dozen other wet trampers. The hip flask came in very handy.