I got up in the morning a few days ago and went down to the DOC office. I met up with Jess and there were two others in there waiting to go on the bus out to the Routeburn as well... The guy was from Chicago (Mike) and the girl was from Berlin (Julia). Turned out that we did the entire track with them.
The first day we went from the Routeburn head of the track up to the Routeburn Falls hut. Absolutely beautiful there. It is right on a cliff by the Routeburn Falls and overlooking two gorgeous valleys. It was dry until we got a short distance from the hut and it rained on us a little. No big deal though. Once we were in the hut it pissed down the rest of the day. We stayed in and talked and played cards with two from Sweden (Daniel and Sissi) and a few Aussies. Since there were only the eight of us in the entire hut we pulled some matresses into the kitchen area and slept there because there was a coal furnace there and it was much warmer...
In the morning we got up and leisurely ate some breakkie and had tea then set out. It started raining as soon as we started on the track. It just was pretty misty though and not raining hard. When we got to the Saddle it had stopped raining. We had been getting incredible views all morning. We figured that since the weather was breaking a little bit we would go up the Conical Summit. It was an hour return with no packs... We left our packs in the shelter. The wind up top was mad, but so were the vistas. Well done New Zealand... well done! We made our way back to the shelter and ate some lunch then set out to the Lake Mackenzie hut as soon as it started raining again... Took us about three hours to get down there, and down it was. There was a warden at the shelter and quite a few people. The main bunk house was nearly full, the stove was blasting and it was warm... Very important since we were soaked through. Had a good night and ate a mean dinner. Jess gave me a wicked back rub... Yeah...
Morning came and I slept through all the people be loud (as I do). Really took our time because it was raining hard and it did not look like fun. Mike and Julia set off in front of us because Mike needed to get a bus at the Divide at 2:15 (us not until 3:45) and Julia was going to continue the Greenstone track. So many awesome waterfalls... There was one HUGE one that soaked us since we had to walk almost directly under it and Jess and I are both too stubborn to take the "flood bridge detour". When arrived at the Howden Hut shortly after Julia and Mike. Ate with them and drank some coffee. Mike decided he was going to continue on the Greenstone with Julia and Jess and I went down to the Divide. When we got down there we had to wait about an hour for the bus. There was some crazy guy there who was going to do the Routeburn (in the descending snows down to 700m) with no rain gear besides some bags... What a nutter. He told us a story of a girl who had just been saved off the Milford Track with a broken leg. He was out on the track and sort of involved in the rescue... Took a bus back to Te Anau where I said a goodbye to Jess and then back to Queenstown. I am staying in the same hostel in the same room with the same guys as before. Kinda funny, but cool too because I like the guys. There was one new guy though...Will. We just went out to dinner at Lonestar. Now I am here writing this and I am ready to go take my wet boots off and sleep!
Pictures are coming! Probably either tomorrow or when I get back to Hamilton... More than likely tomorrow because I have all day in Queenstown and not much to do. I plan to ride the gondola, but if the weather is bad who knows...
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