Routeburn Rain.

We started out with smiles on our faces. Our vacation had officially started! With an attempt at keeping the adventure going, we decided to bypass taking the bus to Glenorchy and the Routeburn Track trail head, and hitchhike instead.

FOUR rides and a few kilometers walk in what started as a sprinkle and we made it to the trail head.


The Routeburn Track was cool and I'm sure it would've been a lot cooler had it not been raining nearly the entire time we were on it. With a thick layer of clouds and fog, visibility wasn't great and often times we found ourselves looking out at nothing and wondering what that nothing would look like under a sky of blue. Probably some of the most spectacular views one could ever see, but ah well. It wasn't all bad and there were still some incredible waterfalls, suspension bridges and landscape, and it felt good to just be out and know the final leg of our adventure had begun. The first night we stayed in a hut and the second night we camped. We intended to camp a third night but all the rain our final leg was becoming dangerous and two different rangers told us we'd have to ford swollen rivers with the possibility of water up to our waists. Um, I wasn't sure that was a good idea. So we aborted the mission a day early and caught a ride back to Queenstown with a lovely woman.

Wet and cold we tramped along and snapped some photos when possible. Here's a sampling:












Here's me, grumpy and cold, in a shelter along the way. There were low points and some great high points too! This just may have been a low point. Ha! Looking forward to the beaches of the north and also Australia!