Routeburn, Day 1
Days 2 & 3
We got up at 7 a.m. and started our day by making our lunches. Everyone prepared sandwiches from the ingredients on the table: ham, cheeses, green salad, pickles, and vegetables, took an apple or an orange, and a small powerbar, filled a water bottle. We carried our lunches in the backpacks until the lunch break. Breakfast was the same every morning: cereal, fruit, scrambled eggs with bacon, tea/coffee. The meals were satisfying and tasty but the coffee was awful. Dinner that consisted from 3 courses was especially good. It was soup or salad, the main course (fish, meat or vegetarian), desert.
The entire group left at the same time at 9 a.m. Eventually, the people strung out along the trail according to their pace. We stopped anywhere we wanted to take a picture or to catch the breath. The trail is well marked, it is impossible to get lost. One guide walked with the fastest walkers, two more in the middle of the group and the fourth guide walked with the slowest person. The weather was excellent, no more clouds and the mountains looked amazing. This area was the shooting location of “The Lord of the Rings” for a reason. Everyone who watched this movie surely remembers the stunning background views.
A snack break was 11 a.m., then a lunch break at around 1 p.m. at a shelter with s toilet. From the shelter, there was ad additional trail to the Conical Peak summit, 2 hours a return hike. My friend, Nina, readily rushed up the trail and I minding the recent injury decided to skip that. I could not keep up with Nina anyway. It was mindboggling how fast she walked.
As the result, I was at the lodge early, at 3 p.m. and Nina got there only by 5 p.m. The evening procedure was the same as before: shower, laundry, drying, dinner, a briefing, going to bed.
The distance on the third and last day was 10 km. The body already adjusted to the backpack weight and 4 to 5 hours walking daily. Swimming is allowed anywhere along the trail – in waterfalls, rivers or lakes – but the water was cold and no place to change into dry clothes.
By 3 p.m. all group gathered on the parking lot and the bus took us back to Queenstown. Nina and I had dinner at the pub and checked into a hotel for 2 nights. The following day was free to do whatever we wished before starting the second walk, Milford track, 5 days and 50 km.