A day on the Routeburn Track

After one day of full rest, I was ready for another hike. The Routeburn Track stretches 32 kilometres through the Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks and along the way passes a huge variety of landscapes. The three to four day Routeburn Track offers up fantastic views and is one of the most popular tracks in New Zealand. This is a more flexible track, with more sleeping options, and people can complete it in 3 or 4 days or just do a day hike. I did one of the track’s ends, from Routeburn Shelter to the first hut (13km, 5hrs return).

From Queenstown, we took the road to Glenorchy, the closest town to the hike’s starting point. This is one of the most scenic roads in New Zealand, with some nice photo opportunities, but well in New Zealand if the sun shines it is scenic everywhere!

Routeburn Track was already known by maoris. The earliest visitors explored and named the landscape establishing their manawhenua /customary authority over the region.

Although this track is also located in Fiorland, it is very different from Milford Track, a kind of Alpine track. On this day hike I walked along Route Burn (river), with the Bridal Veil waterfall as main sight.

This hike was nice but nothing special. But I know that the best days are usually the mid ones, at a certain altitude. I was told that its alpine landscapes, on the second day, are very impressive.

Hopefully I will come back to New Zealand, one day, to do it fully.