Roller Coaster of emotions - Week 4 in NZ
Hi all,
Thanks for following this adventure of mine! It’s been so fun to write it all down and recount the highs and lows of this trip.
Back to where we left off: Will and I had decided to do the Routeburn Track, which is a 33 km/20.5 mi point-to-point hike. People typically shuttle from the end back to the start, but we didn’t want to do that and chose to pack in, camp for 2 nights, and do a long day hike to Harris Saddle, the high point, mid-point, and main attraction of the hike.
Part of the decision to do 2 nights was to be able to be flexible if the weather changed and the other was because everything said the hike to the saddle would take 5-6 hours one way.
The hike in was an easy 4.4 miles with our bags to another gorgeous camping spot. I’m embarrassed to say that during the hike in, and before we got to Routeburn Flats camp I said to Will, “I’m a little confused as to how this is designated a Great Walk. It’s pretty, but it’s nothing spectacular.” We’d been just in the forest and it had felt pretty same same to other hikes we’d done. I ate my words later, and Will didn’t let me live that very naive and unappreciative statement down.
After a quick dump of our stuff, we recognized how good the weather was and decided to do our day trip to Harris Saddle, another 4+ miles in, but according to the signs, at least 3.5 hours. It was 2 pm, so we felt a little urgency, but by now we’d started to ignore the signs.
You see, the trail sign postings here all indicate length of times for hikes instead of distances, and we found that most of the time, the time posted is much longer than the time it takes us. For example, you remember Fox Mountain? The one with no view.. it had a posted return time of 8 hours. It took us 5, including our 45 minute hang out. Rob Roy, my torturous sunrise hike, had a posted return of 6 hours, and we were back in 4. Sometimes they’re accurate, but never enough for us to feel we could rely on them.
The weather being on our side, and having finally learned that if the weather was cooperating on the day we arrived somewhere that we needed to take full advantage and not wait until the next day for our big hike, we were willing to risk running out of daylight on the way back.
We made the short, somewhat steep climb to Routeburn Falls Hut, snapped some photos and carried on.
We came out over the top of the falls and stopped dead in our tracks. It looked like we’d stepped straight into Lord of the Rings - research later confirmed that parts of this area were, in fact, used for filming.
Massive cliff faces and mountains rose on any and all sides, as we walked up and through the grassy valley. The path followed a small river winding through the valley, with waterfalls here and there, and the entirety of this section there was a lot of exclaiming, “can you believe this?!” Some “wow! The weather, the views! I’m so glad we’re doing this today” and a variation or two of “holy cow this was the best decision we’ve made.” This Great Walk really seemed… well, great. Will reminded me every step of the way.
At the end of the valley, we climbed some stairs to get above Harris Lake, rounded the corner and BAM.
Another remarkable view. It felt unreal that this hike continued to have beautiful sight after beautiful sight, and even more unreal that our weather was continuing to cooperate.
Half a mile later, as we rounded the last corner to Harris Saddle, we knew we were in for a treat. Person after person that we’d passed on the way up told us how worth it this long day hike was going to be.
Unsurprisingly, the saddle was yet another mind-boggling view. We oooh-ed, we ahh-ed, and we high-fived, our favorite way to celebrate both big and small wins. Surprisingly, it was only 4 pm, which meant we really were the strong hikers we’d believed ourselves to be a few days ago and we definitely were going to make it back before sundown. Another high-five!
Because we had all this extra time now and we love a challenge, we ventured up Conical Hill, an extra viewpoint just off the saddle, at the top of many stairs and some rocky scramble bits.
At the top there was a great 360° view, with some mountains playing peek-a-boo through some clouds, however it was somewhat difficult to enjoy due to some pretty overwhelming wind. We hung out about 20 minutes, most of which was spent either holding my hat down or grabbing it as it was flying off my head, and then called it; I know my limits and they’re not much when it’s cold and windy.
We made our long way down, cooked a well deserved dinner, celebrated a camp mate’s 7th birthday (leap day baby!), played some Cambio until we couldn’t see the cards anymore (and learned that red light headlamps together with red suited cards add an extra visual challenge element to one’s game), and laid on the picnic table in our sleeping bags stargazing late into the night. It was amazing to think we thought we had chosen the less ideal option for our last big adventure together.
Because the day before hadn’t treated me enough, I woke up to quite possibly the best sunrise of my life, deep in color and over a place that had quickly become one of my favorites on the planet.
Will missed out, and then slept well past when I thought we were going to head off on a little day adventure through a side valley. By the time he got moving, our decent weather window looked as though it had gone and my motivation was gone with it. We chose to not stay another night, knowing the rain was coming, and headed back to Clyde.
The next day in Clyde we cycled part of one of the Great Cycles. Like the Great Walks, these travel some of the best parts of New Zealand. They are on or follow many of the roadways that take you to all of the big highlights and National Parks of the country, and tend to not be overly strenuous. I made no comments about or during the ride and gave no opinion on its greatness until it was said and done. I’d learned my lesson. The first part was a trail where the railway used to be, aptly named The Rail trail. It was flat, sun exposed, and boring.
The way back was The River Trail, and it, unsurprisingly, followed the river. It twisted, and turned, had small bridges and fun single track sections, and was blissfully flowy. We had a blast!
After a quick refresh and lunch at the house, we set out on another ride to a swim spot. This ride was a little less enjoyable, as we had a massive headwind coming off the water. I tried to muster some Little Engine That Could energy, but we ended up turning around because my little legs were quite tired after 27 miles of biking in one day and having just gotten back from backpacking. Don’t worry, we still found a great place to swim, it was just back closer to town.
The next morning, Will left on the bus. Dropping him off came with mixed feelings; I was confusingly very ready for some alone time but also very sad and lonely just at the idea of him being gone. I had just been with this person for 10 days straight, which may be longer than I’ve spent with most of the people in my life. We’d shared so many adventures, so many inside jokes, vulnerabilities, laughs, moments, and hours together, and the idea that I might not see him again didn't and still doesn’t quite compute.
I wasn’t alone for too long though, because Pierre came back from Australia that afternoon. We caught up, did some organizational shelf building in my van, and chatted about plans for my next few days before I headed to the north island.
I had been so bummed about the lack of organization in the kitchen area of my van, and was over the moon when Pierre said he has stools and supplies to easily fix that. It was such a joy to spend an hour or so measuring, cutting, using power tools, and finally making her look and function more how I want -and honestly need… I’m so much more particular than I realized y’all.
My last few days before going to the north island consisted of a lot of emotions as I dealt with some things back home and really had time to sit with myself and who I am/who I want to be, not just while traveling, but at home and in my daily life. There were some big feelings and some hard ones, but I also acknowledged that this year was meant for that work.
I was admittedly also going a bit stir crazy being in a small town with not much to do. That absolutely affected my emotional state. I kept trying to do active things to stay busy and feel fulfilled, like hike or climb or go for a run, and something always kept happening to either prevent me or drastically shorten it. Some higher power didn’t want me escaping sitting in my feels it would seem.
The final day before heading to Auckland, I joined Pierre at work. He works at a winery as an assistant wine maker so I got to see some of the fun behind-the-scenes stuff and even do a little bit myself!
In the region he works they primary make Pinot Noir, which was fine by me when we did our tastings! I much prefer red wine. The wines here are much less bold than the ones at home; he says that has to do with the climate, which made sense to me. Summer here hasn’t quite been what I imagined. It doesn’t get very hot like at home, and I’ve barely worn the shorts and summer clothes I brought.
Most notable to me was all the testing they do at various stages in the production process, and then the adding of various products to adjust taste or tannins or sulfur levels or fermentation rate. There was so much science!
The next day, I left my little van with Pierre, hopped on a plane in Queenstown, and headed to Auckland. There I was preparing for a whole new adventure because I was meeting up with Ally, a friend I met through my roommate, Molly, and with Ally’s dad, Ray.
