For our 2nd trip in Queenstown, I looked at other great walks we didn't do. By the time I looked, it was too late to book DOC Huts, which still cost more than $100 per person per day, but that's nothing compared to Ultimate Hikes, which charges $1000+ for the whole trip. On the plus side, the huts (which contain gas and water, but where you sleep in bunks very close to other people in a big room), are replaced with lodges what could be multiple star hotels in the middle of the wilderness with a choice of dishes for the 3 course dinner. They also include guides on the trail, convenient transportation, equipment loans, and more. Compare with DOC huts:
DOC Huts often look like this. Many people in one big room. One person snoring is probably guaranteed
Here is a picture of the 3 days we did in 3 different colors::
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The Routeburn as I found out a bit too late, is actually only 32km, and I ended up hiking more than that in a single day on the kepler track 2 days later, so in hindsight we could also have done the routeburn in a long single day, except maybe for the transportation issues (getting dropped off soon after sunrise on one side and picked up end of day on the other side, may have been more challenging). Actually, I just found this page that shows how to do it with one day
Another interesting bit I didn't know was that the routeburn and the milford track actually were only private tracks for many years where you had to use the private (and expensive) lodges as the sole option. It's only after enough people complained that the DOC (Department of Conservation) added public huts and allowed regular hikers/backpackers to enjoy the tracks by being able to stay overnight too.
That bit of history aside, given that we had just flown in to NZ the afternoon before, and Jennifer was still battling a cold and resulting poor sleep, doing the routeburn in 3 days with short days, plush accommodations and nice meals, as opposed to a very long day with few breaks, made things easier for her :)
For the price, ultimatehikes still offers a convenient package that takes you to/from queenstown, lends you gear so that you don't have to fly it in or rent it, and in case of problems like a track being flooded to a point that it's not safe to cross, they have at times flown their customers across an impassable points where the other hikers had to turn back and cancel their hike.
Ultimatehikes is more of an obvious choice for people who don't hike as fast, feel more comfortable with guides who can help them out if they run into trouble, and also benefit from not having to carry as much (you can do the hike with a mere 5 to 10kg given that you don't have to carry any food, bedding, tent, just your clothes and personal items).
In my case, it felt like so little weight and cheating so much that I took my laptop and extra stuff I really didn't need (I knew we'd have short hiking days and I had lots of pictures to sort as well as a talk to write for the conference I was attending), which added another 5kg to make it a bit more challenging. I had around 15kg and it still felt super light compared to what I'm used to carrying :)
this is so wrong that I had to do it :)
this was also wrong enough that I had to take a picture :)
All the pictures are GPS tagged, so if you click on them, you'll see where they were taken
Anyway, back to the routeburn. On the first day, we met at the ultimatehikes location in Queenstown at 06:30 and they drove us over 3.5H to Te Anau and then the track start north of that:
By 11:00 we were finally on the track and started our first day. It was an easy 15km, 500 meters uphill (including a detour to key summit for views):
After a short while, we had a break at Howden Hut
the routeburn lost many birds due to introduced mammals, we only got to see a few
We then resumed the rest of the hike for the day:
little puffball :)
the generator output went into a room that became a drying rack, nice idea
you could even do your laundry
the lodge was spacious of course
you could even pay more to get a private room
After dropping our gear and enjoying some welcome snacks, wine and cheese (yes, this is wrong :) ), we went to check out the lake:
a few courageous people went in the very cold water
We also went to check out the DOC lodge:
it's obviously less plush, but still beats sleeping outside in a potential heavy rainstorm
it explained how they are trying to kill the mammals have been decimating the local birds
those traps are all over the track, hopefully they work
warning on how the keas love to destroy your hiking boots :)
We then went back to our lodge for dinner:
Day 2, we got a picture by the lake before hiking. It just 16km including detours:
the lake by the lodge is quite big
we got lucky enough to a flock of Keas fly by
we had a lunch break by saddle shelter huts
our guides made drinks for us, served with cookies :)
Now is a time to make a small segway on my hiking boots. I have a double wide foot which is very hard to fit, so when my boot soles started failing in Tasmania a couple of years ago, I worked on fixing them with glue and screws when I got home. It worked well enough for another 2 years until the filler material under the sole started disintegrating making the glue useless and even the bolts I put in started falling out (arguably my fault for not putting a nut on the other side). Thankfully I had prepared for this possibility and was carrying duct tape, other kinds of tape and enough zip ties to mostly fix it:
my boot didn't look great, but it worked for the rest of the hike
We did a short side hike to Conical Hill and then resumed the hike:
Routeburn Falls Hut
this was going to be our hike out on the 3rd day, but we never got that view again
the other lodge was very nice too
while the DOC hut was a bit more packed
Another evening and dinner:
my salmon was quite tasty :)
This brings us to day 3 which thankfully was a mere 10km (given the weather). Now is not too late to mention that the weather in Fiordlands often sucks. It rains meters of water per year. Our guides were actually pleasantly surprised at how nice the weather and the views were the first 2 days. We apparently got quite lucky those first 2 days, but that luck ran out on the 3rd day, we got moderate non stop rain until we exited the track:
I did manage to miss a spot with the sunscreen the previous day
[rigimg:1024:602*| he falls were more "wet" the next morning]
view were more 'limited'
And by noon, we had reached the exit, and got a ride back to Queenstown:
my 2nd boot also failed just as I exited. I guess it didn't like the water
bus ride back to queenstown
And that was it for Routeburn, while the last day kind of sucked, the first 2 were very nice. This was an unusual hike given the very fancy lodges, limited things to carry, and short hiking days, but it was interesting to try something different and I guess we got lucky that we had such good weather the first few days when terrible storms, including snow, are possible or even somewhat frequent in summer.
