Routeburn Track- Over the Saddle

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Since we decided to hit the trail by 9am, we were back up out of bed at 7am. Thanks to a sleep med from Laura and the antihistamines I brought, and ear plugs and a sleep mask, I slept incredibly hard. I didn't hear the snoring chorus in the hut but I'm told there was one.

I met my first Kea on my way to the common room for coffee and breakfast. They're giant parrots with red under their wings. They're apparently very intelligent. They'll shred anything you leave out on the porch just in the hopes of finding food. Or maybe just as punishment because you didn't leave food. They also like to slide off the roofs for fun. I got pretty close to a pair of Kea and took pictures. No joke, they look smart. I carefully hid my food behind my back in case they stole my breakfast.

We started trekking at 9:15am, and our group quickly stretched out along the trail, backpacking in ones and twos mostly. Routeburn Falls was a series of wide giant cascades literally just about our hut. I had no idea they were so close! After practicing on Mission Peak solo hiking for weeks, I was really comfortable trekking on the track by myself for long stretches. Which isn't to say I was completely alone because you can see people in either direction pretty much at all times. I walked along the stretches of grassland high up in the mountains, headed towards Harris Saddle and the shelter up there.

Eventually I ran into Chris, and then Tony caught up. The three of us climbed up and up, past Harris Lake, along cliffs and finally made it to Harris Saddle by 11:15am. Not bad timing!

We ate our lunch while we waited for the others to catch up. We knew Billy would want to do the side trail up Conical Hill so we just hung out, watching people go up and down the trails and enjoying the stunning views. This trail has been everything I thought it would be.

After 45 minutes, Tony got antsy and started up the trail to Conical Hill. I knew as soon as we started we'd see Billy. So, at the one hour mark, we left our packs at the shelter and headed up the switchbacks. We got up one and saw a pair that could have conceivably been Billy and Laura. So we started waving a yelling at them on the opposite ridge. They didn't hear us. Then we noticed the guy was limping. And we thought, oh no, Billy's hurt. So we headed down the switchbacks. When we got closer we realized the guy had the wrong color pack and the girl was too tall. Damn! So we headed back UP the switchbacks, made it up one, and then saw a group of four that was definitely our crew. So we hollered across the ridge again and this time they stopped, waved and called back. Dude. We could clearly hear them. The acoustics were phenomenal for the distance. We told them we were headed up.

Ten minutes later and we're realizing calling it Conical HILL was a joke. This was no damned hill. This was a 700ft ascent scrabbling up the side of a mountain. And then Chris and I hear incredibly loud gasps for air behind us. We look down and there's Billy with his walking sticks and my jaw drops. "Dude! How'd you get up here so fast?!" Poor bastard hella booked it. He caught his breath after a couple minutes and then we continued the ridiculous climb together.

It was a 1.5hr trip up and down the steep mountain, and it wasn't made any easier a climb by the slick rocks and snow. But goddamn the 360 degree views of the surrounding ranges were phenomenal. Absolutely worth scaling the mountain! And I felt so, SO lucky the views were absolutely clear.

We carefully made our way back down, often sliding on our butts because it was so slick and steep. Laura and Tony were waiting at the shelter at the bottom while Linna and Nathan decided to get a head start. I snacked on an apple with hazelnut butter and it was heaven. This would definitely be a staple snack on future backpacking trips.

The next couple hours we trekked along ridges, high above the valley. It had gotten pretty hot and we were completely exposed to the sun the entire time. So we drank a ton of water and reapplied sunscreen literally seven times that day. Guess what. I even didn't filter my water. Just drank it straight from the mountain stream (of which there are a billion... like every ten feet) like a boss local Kiwi. Apparently the water is super clean here. The country can't officially boast that the water is clean (and neither will I) but I took that chance and came out fine. No diarrhea runs in subsequent days for me.

After a couple hours or so we caught up to Linna and Nathan again by a nice ledge on the ridge. We all plopped down to eat a snack and drink water. Linna and Nathan continued on but we found them ten minutes later again lol. We knew the Lake Mackenzie Hut had to be coming soon but we saw no lake in sight until we finally rounded a corner and there it was.

Linna and Nathan fell behind and all three other boys pushed ahead, so it was just me and Laura making our way down the switchbacks to the hut. Two thirds of the way down we disappeared below the bush line into what the hut warden called Faerie Glen. It was intensely lush, moss covered everything. Boulders as big as cars had trees with roots growing right on top of them. I got a kick outta that.

We finally reached Lake Mackenzie and it was gorgeous. The snow capped mountains in the background, moss and tree covered Island and boulder strewn lake were stunning.

We checked in and picked bunks again. The layout was different. Each bunk had four mattresses side by side. We sat by the lake, dipped our achey feet in. The water was so cold it hurt. I tried to wade out to a boulder to sit on it, and I utterly failed. I'd never been in water so painfully cold. We also finally found the sand flies. They began to bite our bare legs.

Hut talk followed dinner (and wine) time again. Clive was our hut warden and his dry humor had everyone cracking up laughing for an hour on the porch of the common room. He spinned a few tales on the demise of the stoats and the scaling of the local alpine peaks. As tired as I was from such a long damned day and achey muscles, I was loving every minute of it. Although, right after that, we went right to bed, exhausted. I slept like a rock again.

We had done 7 miles plus a side climb up Conical Hill over a total of 8 hours.

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