So kids, here’s a little story.
Mike once said he really wanted to walk the Routeburn. “Great” I thought “we can do that.” I’d done the Routeburn before, camping along the way because me and my student buddies didn’t want to pay the $50/night to sleep in the huts.
Then he added: “In a day”
Is that even possible? It’s 37km long, not to mention a recommended 3-5 day hike. Turns out, lots of people do it (ultra marathon runners, their “not-so-fit-partners” and apparently, us). It took us 10hrs walking time, 11 hours total. We started in the dark (but hey, I wonder how many people know the start of the track has GLOWWORMS on the side of the river?) around 7am, and finished at 6pm. It was Easter Saturday, 2015. We spent Easter Sunday that year chowing down on Maccas breakfast, and driving back home to Dunedin.
So. Here’s a run down of the Routburn, some photos are from our crazy day trip (taken with a Samsung s3mini I might point out) and some from that other trip, the way you’re meant to do it.
The logistics:
The trip really starts in Dunedin. We took two cars, and drove both of them to Te Anau. We left one car at the Routeburn car-park (The Divide Shelter on the Te Anau-Milford Highway), which is an hours drive past Te Anau, 40 minutes from Milford Sound. We both jumped into the other one and drove to Glenorchy.
That’s a total of roughly 8.5hours of driving. Which we did on Good Friday. Not to mention we got pulled over and given a speeding ticket for going 104 in a 100, thank you Zero Tolerance Holidays. I remember the ticket being all of $12, but I think it was more like $30. But anyway, we got there, and the views on the way were of AMAZING classic NZ scenery straight out of a tourism handbook. (Note: Lake Te Anau made a great lunch stop, as pictured above, and the whole time we drove to the divide I was thinking “we must come camp here all summer one year”)
We camped at the Doc campsite called “Kinloch” which is right on the shore of Lake Wakatipu!! In the morning we left the tent at the campsite, sleeping bags and all, and drove to the car park at the start of the track. (At the Routeburn Shelter)
We then walked (easier said than done) to the car at the other end, drove back to our tent (we may have stopped in Queenstown for Macdonalds on the way!), and slept the best sleep we have ever slept.
We’d recommend this (surprisingly) to any one game; we think its the most logical way to go about the Routeburn as a day walk. (Unless you really want to walk all the way back again) We had tried to convince several of our friends to walk the opposite direction to us so that we could just swap keys in the middle.; But no-one was quite up to the challenge. Maybe you’d have better luck. Or maybe you just need to ask us, and we’d gladly swap keys with you!
Kinloch:
I just want to say a little extra about Kinloch Campsite. It’s a pretty ordinary, long drop toilet and water from stream type set up, with an EXTRA-ORDINARY view. There are no showers, but you can pop across the road and pay $5 for a hot shower at the lodge (not that you really need one camping, it’s all part of the fun)
The photo above is a picture taken on the way to the campsite, on the windy road past Queenstown. The photo collage below is of the campsite itself. The one below that shows just how close we camped to the shore of the lake. I think I can safely say this is the BEST campsite I’ve ever stayed at in terms of “room with a view” (then again, I am slightly biased towards the lake-mountain scenery of Central Otago)
At $6/night/person you can’t really go wrong. You can bunk down in a tent, or motor home (non-powered sites only) by night and by day enjoy fishing, boating or exploring the nearby forest. Oh, and that tree pictured bottom left? There’s a ladder that leads to a little tree-house where you can sit and watch the world go by in peace.
The Track;
The Routeburn itself is classified as a New Zealand Great Walk, which means the track is well maintained, well defined and easy to navigate. The only reason you need a map on a great walk is to track how far you’ve come and how much more you have to walk before lunch/dinner/any other food stop.
We used a “manky map” which you can buy at the local DOC office for a few dollars (9ish). They’re great in that they have all the important stops, information on the back about timing, elevation and interesting facts about the area. They also have added bonus of being water-prof, machine washable and can be tied around your wrist for easy access. (they also make great screen/glasses cleaners for when you get home)
