After selling their house in the United States, retired couple John and Jean Strother have been travelling full time. They love to hike and backpack and have had some amazing adventures around the world — including here in New Zealand.
Today we’re sharing with you Jean and John’s experience (and beautiful photos) of the Routeburn Track…
Beautiful beyond words
The Routeburn Track, going east to west, starts in Mt Aspiring National Park and crosses into Fiordland National Park.
Incredible landscapes
We decided to use huts as there is no camping at Routeburn Falls (we chose to not do the long day required to hike from Routeburn Flats over Harris Saddle to the campground at Lake Mackenzie Hut).
As the Routeburn Track is not a loop, we had to make some transportation arrangements, organising for our campervan to be driven from Routeburn Shelter (near Glenorchy and 68 km from Queenstown) where we started, to other end of the track at the The Divide Shelter (on the Milford Road, 85 km from Te Anau).
After arriving at the Routeburn Falls Hut (and securing two of the remaining three bottom bunks) we did some exploring in the area, John with camera in hand, as always.
Routeburn Falls
The next day we headed toward Harris Saddle, enjoying views of Lake Harris along the way.
Lake Harris
We stopped briefly at the Harris Saddle Shelter and climbed to the top of nearby Conical Hill for still more great views, including bits of Milford Sound and the Tasman Sea in the far distance.
Harris Saddle Shelter
John and Jean on top of Conical Hill
We then descended from the saddle and got our first sight of Lake Mackenzie, as well as the Lake Mackenzie Hut, which is barely seen at the far end of the lake—our destination for the day.
Lake Mackenzie
As we descended further, we entered what is aptly called “The Enchanted Forest”…
The Enchanted Forest
Earland Falls
The next day the track took us by Earland Falls…
…before leading to the end of the track where we were happy to see our campervan waiting for us in the parking lot at the Divide.
Read more on panafoot — Jean and John’s blog.
pan-a-foot (păn’ ũh fʊt) v. covering great distances to see more of the world under one’s own power
All of the photos used in this post were taken by John Strother © All rights reserved.
See more of their Routeburn Track photos on Flickr.
A big thanks to Jean and John for giving us permission for us to publish this on the Conservation Blog!
