NZPhotographer Issue 23, September 2019

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.
September 2019
39