Glenorchy, Routeburn Track

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Glenorchy, Routeburn Track
November 24, 2008


The road from Queenstown to Glenorchy is very twisty and narrow with several one-lane bridges, but it is also one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever been on. It runs alongside Lake Wakaputi, which would be nice enough, but add in mountains, green meadows, waterfalls, and wildflowers and you get something pretty special. Today was even cloudy and it was still pretty. On a blue sky day, it must be too much to take.

One end of the Routeburn Track in Mt. Aspiring National Park starts near Glenorchy, which is one of the reasons we wanted to go there. The Routeburn is one of the “Nine Great Tracks” in NZ and we wanted to see what it was about. Glenorchy has about 250 people, but it has a very discreet hotel for the rich and famous where the rooms are $2750 a night. We didn’t even see the place, must be hidden away. Some of the scenes in the “Lord of the Rings” movies were filmed around Glenorchy.

We drove out to the trailhead and had a wonderful day hike on the Routeburn. The first part goes through a creepily gorgeous moss-covered forest. I kept expecting Golum to jump out at me or at least Frodo to hand me a ring. We were jealous of the people we saw that were heading out for the full three days. Most of the “Great Tracks” have huts along the way, so one doesn’t have to carry a tent. None of the tracks are longer than five days, and the walks are short between the huts. Most people walk only four or five hours a day. This is my kind of hiking. If we had been thinking, we could have booked a hut. Everything is filled up now.

It began to pour rain on our return. Back in Glenorchy, we ate at a café where I played it safe and ordered a lamb salad and Joe got this “whitebait” fish thing. It was delicious, but you could see the little fish eyeballs (see photo). Across the street was a store where there were women sewing up possum skins to make clothing and next to it was a store selling items made of a combination of merino wool and possum fur. I bought some “sleep socks” out of this material, a cheap souvenir. We had a nice time visiting with the owner of the shop, I think we were the only tourists in town today.

Queenstown is another story. The caravan park is packed to the gills. I’m guessing there are at least 200 campervans here tonight. The town is hopping with young kids having fun. We are old and tired, so won’t last long.

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Photos

Lake Wakaputi
Between Queenstown and Glenorchy.

Routeburn Track
View from the road to the Routeburn Track trailhead.

The Head of Lake Wakaputi
Taken from the Glenorchy pier.

Closeup of the Whitebait Whatever-It-Is
See the little fins and eyes. We ate it all (Joe shared).

Queenstown
This is what it looked like in Queenstown when we got back tonight. This is the view from our caravan park.