The Routeburn Track by Brendon Gilchrist EARLAND FALLS F9, 1/160s, ISO100 38 <strong>NZPhotographer</strong>
Come on a written journey with me as I venture onto the Routeburn, one of the greatest walks in New Zealand covering 32km of tramping track from Glenorchy to The Divide or vise versa. This is a walk that many people do during the official season which runs from from 29th October to 30th April. Last year a total of 6,606 Kiwi’s and 8,536 international visitors walked the Routeburn Track. Myself and my Dad can't be included in those figures though as we're walking it in the off season, a time when the track is walked by very few. DAY 1 – FROM THE DIVIDE TO LAKE MACKENZIE HUT Driving up to The Divide which is where the track begins, there was a lot of snow banked up at the side of the road which seemed to get deeper the further we drove but the road itself was thankfully clear. Arriving at The Divide around 9.30am we got kitted up with our boots, hats, and gloves and headed off into the bush. The track started slowly, winding uphill towards Key Summit turn off but this was a detour that we didn’t take as the clouds were low and the view wouldn’t have been very good so we continued on the main Routeburn track, making it to Lake Howden Hut after about an hour 20 minutes. Considering the track was covered in snow, we were doing well. As we carried on there were many streams and bridges to cross, some with icicles hanging by the water. I should have stopped and taken some photos of these icicles when I saw them but I didn’t and I am a little gutted because on the return trip they were gone. At approximately 1,000 metres above sea level, the snow was deep in patches which was tough going. We could hear the 174 metre high Earland Falls before we could see them but when our eyes did catch up with our ears it was a spectacular sight with snow and ice hanging on to the sides and water pouring over the top. Standing at the base we could see large chunks of snow falling off the side of the waterfall – I took a few photos but was wary of hanging around too long incase something bigger fell down! I thought that once we reached this point, roughly half way with no long hard climbs ahead, just a consistent altitude until we reached Lake Mackenzie, that the going would get easier. My thoughts were a little bit wrong! Over this next section, we made good time crossing a few avalanche paths (one of which was signposted 400 meters long) but it was not easy and the snow never stopped, it was as if it snowed more the further we went in! It was around 4pm now with a little bit of daylight left and I had a great idea to go ahead of Dad and light a fire to warm the hut up, but now there was no dry firewood. I tried anyway but failed and although we had some success later, we spent two nights in a hut that was warmer outside then it was inside, how is that even possible?! Given the amount of snow we had walked through, there was no way we were going to even attempt to go up the Harris Saddle as it was bound to be neck-deep! So our plans for the next day were to relax and hope the weather would clear for a little bit. Night fell and we had nothing else to do but sleep by the fire in hope that it would be slightly warmer here than in the bunk bedroom. DAY 2 – IN AND AROUND THE HUT The next morning we collected what wood we could find, it wasn’t much, but it had to do – a lot of the good stuff was buried under the snow. I went for a walk to the campsite which is 10 minutes from Lake Mackenzie Hut hoping that the view of the mountain with the frozen lake below (the shot I came for which is just 2 minutes from the hut) would be visible but the mountain was still hidden by clouds. It would have been such a stunning shot but this is the way of photography, it’s not always a success but you go and try anyway as you never know when you might get a lucky break. At sunset I headed out with my camera and tripod again but there were no colours at all, a very blue evening. I managed to get a few good compositions of the lake and the mountain but not that stunner I’d been hoping for. Our last night in the hut was an interesting one, the rain poured down and the ice on the roof came crashing down, waking us up now and then. DAY 3 – FROM LAKE MACKENZIE VIA LAKE HOWDEN BACK TO THE DIVIDE Morning came and we had to pack up and clean the hut. I was hoping the rain would stop by the time we were ready to walk out but no, it poured all day long. I put on my over pants and my rain jacket and I was ready. I didn’t think about the 12km we had to walk but just stepped out of the hut and started walking. The only good thing with the rain was that a lot of the snow had melted so the track was mostly visible. <strong>September</strong> <strong>2019</strong> 39
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BENMORE SUNSET F11, 1/125s, ISO200
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