Glenorchy & Routeburn

The low cloud around us on waking had lifted by the time we left our cosy lakeside spot on Friday morning to drive on to Glenorchy, not far up the road, and it was another brilliant sunny day. We walked around the lagoon loop track which we have done before - the lagoons with the reflections were pretty and there were ducks and black swans but we were again disappointed with the lack of birdsong in the trees.

Lake Sylvan

A brazen toe pecking robin!

Lake Sylvan and the start of the Routeburn track are about 27km further on from Glenorchy so that was our next destination though we very nearly turned around when we struck the gravel corrugated road. Talk about violent juddering and rattling although the road looked fine! We could go about 15kph only and I'm surprised we haven't found any broken articles yet. Once at the car park we did the flat 2 hour loop and old tramway track to the pretty lake Sylvan and were amazed by the Sth Island robins which kept trying to peck at Len's toes! We also saw quite a few riflemen before we walked a little further around the lake on the Rockburn track which unfortunately hasn't been maintained, with lots of fallen trees blocking parts of it, so we gave up on that extension and headed back to the carpark and adjacent DOC camp where we stayed for 2 nights which included last night.

Yesterday we drove a little further up the road to the Routeburn Track car park which already had a lot of vehicles parked in it before we set off walking at 10.00am in cloud and in beech trees initially but the sun came out again later in the morning. The walk starts in a bit of a basin with towering peaks around and there is a gradual easy climb up to the first hut at the Routeburn flats where the walk opens out onto a view of a vast brown tussocked flatland after following part of the Routeburn River with its huge boulders and rushing water. There were quite a lot of trampers going in both directions, some day-walkers like us, and some doing the whole track.

Lunch stop before ascent to the falls

We had lunch near the Flats Hut and then continued on to the steepest part of the whole track up to the Routeburn Falls where there is also a "hut" which is the nicest and biggest that we have yet seen. There is also a Lodge where guided walkers stay but from the outside they look similar. I was so impressed that the huts on the track have real flushing toilets! There is also a helicopter pad for dropping supplies for the guided walkers.

Resting by Routeburn Falls hut

We are so pleased that we made the effort to do the walk up to the falls as the views of the Humboldt Range were spectacular and you felt that you were right up in the mountain tops at a bit over 3500 feet although it was still another 500 feet or so to the highest point of the track. We knew we wouldn't have the energy to climb any higher though in just one day so after sitting for a while we began our descent to arrive back at the bus at 4.30 quite tired, but pleased to have completed over a quarter of this 10th ranked great walks of the world (twice!)