Milford Sound

The Southern Alps meet the sea along the west coast of New Zealand's south island, and the resulting landscape can be pretty spectacular. Such is the case at Milford Sound. The soaring mountains abruptly meet the sea. Mitre Peak rises just over a mile high straight out of the water.

Milford Sound gets an unbelievable 6+ meters of rain a year. Even Portland doesn't reach even a single meter. It's the second rainiest place on the planet. Waterfalls emerge from everywhere. As you can see though, our run of good weather continued. Another fine day for a 2-hour cruise.

As we reached the opening of the sound to the sea, we were met by a thick blanket of clouds.

Here's a look back into the Sound and its blue sky.

From the ocean, you can't really see the opening to the Sound. Captain Cook marked this as a Bay in his log and never discovered the Sound.

With the extreme rainfall, the Sound has a layer of silty (dark) freshwater on its surface. The lack of light fools marine life into thinking the water is much deeper than it is. Many sea creatures normally found only miles deep are relatively near the surface here. Along with Doubtful Sound a bit up the coast, it's the only place on the planet with this phenomenon.

We snapped a few parting shots of the Southern Alps as we drove back to Queenstown.

Routeburn Track: Day 3

Day 3 was an easy day, all downhill. We had less than four hours of hiking to get through before meeting our 2 pm bus pickup. We started back into the forest heading towards the Routeburn Flats. About half way down, we came to a "slip" that crossed the trail. Heavy rains in 1994 had caused a landslide that opened up some great views.

We got to navigate six swinging bridges on Day 3.

We broke for lunch at the Flats and had a guest photographer snap one of us.

Here's a look back up at the Routeburn. Unfortunately, there's only a sliver of the falls visible from the Flats.

A view downstream; different waterfall.

After the Flats, the Routeburn tumbles towards the next valley.

We only got a glimpse of the next valley as we neared the end of the Track.

A parting shot at the finish!

Routeburn Track: Day 2

Sleeping in a hut shared with 40 people isn't the greatest, especially with the inevitable chorus of a few snorers. But as we stirred and started out of our bunks, an excited hiker asked if we'd been outside yet. No, not yet. He then gushed that the day was fine and perfect. Sure enough, bright blue skies greeted us.

We hit the trail after a breakfast of porridge (that's oatmeal to us). I'd noticed the night before that the swollen lake was spilling over the trail for about a 100 meters about 200 meters from the hut. We stayed in our flip flops for that in the hope that the trail would stay dry and give our shoes -- still a bit damp from the day before -- a chance to dry out. The water was cold as expected, and got close to 2 feet deep in parts. It was a good move -- we started uphill soon after and had dry feet all day. I made Leena take a picture of me as we climbed just to prove that I too carried some stuff. (And good thing I brought a running fleece to be highly reflective on the trail...)

After climbing most of the first hour, the trail abruptly broke out of the forest and above the tree line. It was like coming out of a tunnel.

A look back down at McKenzie Lake -- you can see the roof of the Hut just left of center at the bottom of the frame.

After an hour and a half, we came around a 270 degree corner with awesome views in every direction. We'd finished the bulk of the days climbing.

We had a decent view for our picnic lunch. Leena soon after...

We reached the Harris Saddle just past noon. It's essentially the midpoint of the track and the high point as well. There's a side trail up Conical Hill. I left my pack with Leena at the emergency shelter and scrambled up another 700 vertical feet. A shot looking up at the top -- very steep trail!

On this perfect, fine day, the views were spectacular. In the distance you could see all the way to the Tasman Sea. The small white horizontal line in the middle of the frame is the surf breaking on the beach.

The view back to the east.

Glacier fed lake as we headed on from the Harris Saddle. The Routeburn river tumbles out of the lower end of this lake.

The trail passed a huge boulder left behind by a glacier. Note that the trail goes through the opening at the bottom right of the frame. To give you an idea of the size of the rock, no, I didn't have to duck to get through...

After hiking down for most of two hours, we got our first view of the Routeburn flats. Between us and the flats is 900 vertical meters of cascades and waterfalls.

We stayed for night two at the Routeburn Falls Hut, situated right at the tree line just below the first series of waterfalls. A view from the "back yard".

Feeling a bit hot and, uh, sweaty, I took a dip in the falls. Sourced mainly from glacier runoff, the water was just a bit cold!

A view from the "front porch" of the Hut as night decends. Since we near the 45th parallel (south!) in summer, night came really late -- this shot was taken right at 22:00. Interesting that Portland is just north of the 45th parallel in this hemisphere.

Routeburn Track: Day 1

Wow. The Routeburn Track was the highlight of the trip. It's a 32 or 39 km trail (we've seen conflicting info on the length) through New Zealand's Southern Alps. It's typically done over 3 days and 2 nights (our approach), though some folks run it in a single day (the record is 2:48!). There are bunk houses with beds and mattress pads to stay in at night with separate communal cabins with water, gas stoves and tables. A bit of a step up for us "car campers", but not as tough as pure backpacking which would include hauling a tent, pad, stove and much more water.

We started Day 1 with an 8am pickup in Queenstown and a 3 1/2 hour drive to the Divide. The Divide is the lowest crossing point of New Zealand's Southern Alps and the West end of the Track. The driver on the way out was full of great information. For starters, this was the 14th straight day of rain on the track, and he told us to expect to see some unhappy folks at the Divide waiting to be picked up (you can walk the track in either direction). He seemed a bit concerned about us as he dropped us off. Have you done anything like this before? Do you have rain gear? As he left, he gave us four throat lozenges. How nice.

It was a steady rain for the whole drive down, and the sky got darker and darker as we approached the Divide. Good times! Upon arrival we noted that there indeed were 15 or 20 very wet and not so cheerful backpackers waiting to be picked up. We bundled up in our rain gear, loaded up the packs, and got ready to go.






















With all the rain, there were creeks and waterfalls everywhere. The path itself served as a creek bed quite often. Waterfalls tumbled across.






















After a wet first hour, we came to Lake Howden. The skies cleared for a bit. There's a hut at the lake, so we unloaded and enjoyed some lunch.

















Soon after Lake Howden, we came to the Key Summit side trail. It's a one-hour return hike to a summit (of course), but we passed. We were barely below cloud level as it was, so no great views to be had.

















Another hour in was Earland Falls, a 178 meter waterfall. The path crosses the falls just a few meters from the base of the falls. The waterfall seemed to flow straight out of the clouds -- we couldn't see anywhere near the top. And as we turned the corner and got close to the falls, the power was tremendous. The falls were at peak level after all the rain. We only got within 20 meters or so of the falls before turning back to take the flood detour around the falls. It was misty enough that visibility went to zero, and the wind was enough to make balance an issue. The detour was no picnic either as we scrambled up and down rock ledges and got completely soaked in the process.






















Ten minutes further down the path provided a view of the falls. We waited 10 or 15 minutes for the clouds to lift enough for this view.






















After a few more kms through forest, the path opens to The Orchard. The dense beech forest opens up for about 400 meters with trees that look like fruit trees.

















After five hours on the trail, we arrived at Lake McKenzie Hut for the night. We changed into dry clothes and were glad to see the forecast for the next 3 days: fine and cold.