Day 3: Last Day of the Routeburn Track Trek, Southern Alps, New Zealand

Day 3: Last Day of Routeburn Track Trek

It’s a sad day due to the fact that our hike is to end. The final leg is 5.7 miles long from Routeburn Falls Lodge to the Routeburn Shelter. Alec, our bus driver will meet us there. We’ll  finish on the Queenstown side at the Dart River Valley--- on one of NZ’s most scenic valleys and the site of the breathtaking Rohan scenes in the Lord of the Rings sagas.

South Island of New Zealand. You can see where Wanaka, Queenstown and Te Anau are located.

Good profile of the entire Trek.

The route of the Routeburn Trek. "Route" is pronounced "root" here.

Today’s hike out takes us over the Routeburn River via several footbridges and several swingbridges and a nice wide track. As we descend in altitude, we enter Routeburn Flats, an expansive tussock flat.  We pass through a mixed Beech forest to alpine pastures. Warmth-loving Red Beech trees grow here due to the often sunny north facing slope. 

Good morning world. (Thank you little pocket Canon for taking such nice pictures.)

Swingbride: no more than 5 at a time please. 

We cross an avalanche slip that occurred in 1994. According to my brochure guide, this happened because Beech trees have evolved by a spreading root system to grow in the thin mountain soil. The roots of adjacent trees can sometimes lace together. Thus, in heavy rainfall, one falls and they all go down. That is what happened in 1994--- a whole section of the forest slipped down the hillside. It’s called a tree avalanche. 

Once down on the Flat,  the track follows the river. At one point, it roared through a gorge, plunging beneath massive rocks at the Sump. We stopped for lunch near the river and soaked up the sunshine while eating our homemade sandwiches. From there, it was a gentle walk through the beech forest to the Road End. 

Smiling to be in the wilderness, but sad for the hike to end.

Natasha running down the Red Beech tree track.

Nice spot for lunch.

Sadao soaking up the sunshine after lunch.

I did not want the hike to end. It seemed to have gone by much too quickly. Hmmm... maybe time does pass quickly in a green landscape.

Carpet of moss.

As I walked today, I kept spying heartrocks. I called today... "Heart Rock Day."

Too heavy to put in the pack.

I think I spied my first butterfly rock.

Hidden heart.

After spying over 20 heartrocks, I stopped taking photos and just enjoyed seeing them. 

After everyone finished the tramp, we boarded the bus and drove to the small community of Glenorchy. We celebrated the completion of our 3 day adventure with a beer at the Glenorchy Pub outdoor garden. The guides presented us with certificates of completion and our group photo that had been taken at the Mackenzie Lodge. We boarded the bus for the last time and made our way to Queenstown.

I'll be back someday for another trek. Who would like to join me?

This pub has been serving the Glenorchy community since 1885.

Enjoying a Speight's beer at the end-of-the-road.

Thank you guides and Alec, our bus driver for a terrific New Zealand adventure.

Bob was there to meet me. After saying my good-byes to my fellow hikers, we left Queenstown and made our way over the Crown Rd. back to Wanaka. I was craving spicy food, so Bob took me to The Spice Room in Wanaka for Indian Food. I ordered Venison Curry extra hot! It was delicious. 

Wonderful Indian food at The Spice Room. Make my venison curry hot-hot!

Great group of trekkers.

That night, I fell asleep dreaming about colors... the colors of Mother Nature. 

Color my world with alpine lakes, trees, waterfalls, mountains, mountain vistas and winding paths. Color my world with wilderness. I thought of Edward Abbey too. He wrote one of my favorite books of all-time, “Desert Solitaire.”

Here are two of his quotes that I love. Seems fitting for this time and place. At every opportunity I have, I take his advice. Seriously! 

“Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets' towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.” -Ed Abbey

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space.” -Ed Abbey