Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

crossing a walk bridge on the Routeburn Track
It was along routes like this, climbing high mountain passes and detouring
through the surrounding valleys, that the ancient people of this land walked
hundreds of years ago. Hardy Maori hunters forged paths through the thick foliage
in search of great boulders of pounamu – known as greenstone or New Zealand
jade – lying like forgotten jewels at the bottom of the rivers and lakes stretching
from here to the west coast.
Great ridges of snow-topped mountains fill the horizon before me, framing three
of these great river valleys, stretching off in different directions – Hollyford to the
north, Eglinton to the southwest and the bushy green slopes of the appropriately
named Greenstone Valley to the southeast. All are shaped by shifting tectonic
plates and the inexorable grinding of colossal glaciers.
I trace along the western flank of the Ailsa Mountains, the path growing steeper
with every step. The Maori walked these paths in sandals made of woven cabbage
leaves, making their way across 50 miles (80km) of treacherous terrain east to their
settlements in Otago. Soon, spray from the thundering deluge of Earland Falls, a
great forked waterfall cascading down from nearly 600ft (180m) above, creates a
fine mist across the path. It winds up alongside a wide grassy meadow with groves
of slender-trunked ribbonwood trees and down into a steep valley, where the
night’s rest stop, Lake Mackenzie Lodge, is neatly tucked. Plumes from its chimney
promise a warming fireside within.