The shuttle bus left Queenstown at 7am, heading for Te Anau. As the bus cleared the suburbs and we found ourselves in New Zealand countryside, I felt like I could finally let my breath out, breath that I’d been holding since arriving in Queenstown the previous afternoon. I’m sure it’s a great place for a holiday, but after spending a number of weeks in quiet, quintessentially New Zealand parts of this country, Queenstown had come as quite a glitzy, overly touristy shock.
I changed shuttles in Te Anau and headed for The Divide, being the western end of the Routeburn Track, on the road to Milford Sound. After dropping almost everyone at the start of the Milford Track at Te Anau Downs, it was only the driver, Terry, myself and a girl named Jen left on the bus. Jen was on her way to visit her friend the warden at the Lake Mackenzie hut and was carrying a bottle of wine to give to him when she got there. The three of us chatted about Fiordland, New Zealand, Australia and the world as we wound our way towards our destination.
It was pouring with rain when we arrived, so I kitted up with waterproofs and set off at about 11am - Jen got herself organised quicker than me and charged off at a great pace a few minutes earlier. I decided to take it slower than usual, if for no other reason than to avoid the discomfort of sweating too profusely under my waterproof layer. Jen and Terry had agreed on the ride in that Fiordland is often at its most beautiful when it’s raining - a good attitude considering how rare clear, sunny days are in this part of the world!
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| Starting the track |
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| Beech forests |
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| Low visibility! |
The walk to the Lake Mackenzie campsite took four hours and was really nice. There was hardly anyone on the track - just a handful of people coming the other way. There was almost no visibility beyond the immediate, surrounding trees, and it rained the whole way, although it eased with time. Fiordland forests really are something else - everything covered with a thick carpet of verdant green moss, light largely blocked out by the dense canopy overhead. Mirkwood. Earland Falls, along the path, was simply awesome - 174 metres high and creating its own weather patterns: walking in front of it felt like standing in a wind tunnel with someone pointing a fire hose at you - I got soaked but the waterproofs kept most of it out. Not so for a German girl I encountered there - she was wearing jeans and a fleece top and was soaked to the skin. I asked her if she was warm enough, she said no, but she’d dry out when she got to the campsite that evening. Because everything was booked out, she had to walk to Routeburn Flats, my stop for the second night. Quite a task before nightfall. I didn’t hear any reports of problems, so I assume she got there OK.
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| Riflemen |
The highlight of the day for me was stopping for a few minutes at one stage to listen to the forest. Within a few minutes, I was surrounded by 6-7 tiny, chirping birds - Riflemen or Titipounamu. They were so cute, chirping away and hopping around. The campsite at Lake Mackenzie is wonderfully picturesque but very stony, so it was difficult to get the pegs to stay in the ground - hopefully the tent will stay up!
There’s a bit of wind and rain again now. I’ve changed into thermals and am feeling very comfy here inside the tent.
Another great thing about this hike is that I’m heading home at the end of it! The past two weeks by myself kayaking, travelling and now hiking, have ended up being a bit more of a challenge-expedition-ordeal than I expected: entirely due to the weather. It’ll just be so nice to be home again - with Nadia and Ruby and our lovely sense of belonging and togetherness.
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| Lake Mackenzie from campsite |
My companions for the night here are a New Zealand couple, an Israeli guy Emir, Chilean Franz and Dutch Pieter - they’re good, friendly people. This place is special. I’m sitting on a little bench behind my tent now because it’s not really raining at the moment - more is forecast for tonight, though. Bits of blue sky are visible from time to time through the drifting cloud and mist.
OK, time to go to bed - it’s 8:15pm!
