Well, after doing 2 tracks in te anu, we decide to leave the nice township and move to our next destiny - Queenstown.
The road from queenstown was very beautiful and peace, as all the roads in new Zealand. After a short 2 hours drive we reached our destination. As always, the first thing we did is to get into the information site and ask if there is a good place to sleep in Town for our price range. Well, they told us that as far as they know there is now budget accommodation in town for the next few days because of the new years eve. Appertanley, Queenstown is a very popular destination for new year's celebration and therefore the city is full with vacationers from all over New Zealand, as well as heaps of tourists. Think of Eliat in Peasch or Sochot and you will get the picture.
Nevertheless, we still didn't lose our hopes and tried driving around Town in search for some kind of place that will let us put our head down in this busy time.
Well, we found it. Not far from the town center we found the aspen Lodge, it even had a double room for us (not dormitory!).
It was a very nice place and we were very happy to find it. After we settled down, we went to find out when can we book the routeburn track.
The plan was to make the routeburn track with connection with the greenstone track in order to get back to glenorchy - the starting point of the routeburn track. The other option was to walk the routeburn only, which means that we have the take a very expensive bus from the divide (the end point of the track) - near milford sound back to queenstown, which means paying 67 NZD per person!
At first our mind was set on staring the track on Saturday, but the only place they had left is for Friday, so we booked it. We also bought tickets to the green stone huts, which didn't require any booking. We were very happy to hear that we got a spot and we started to plan what we will eat and even made some shopping in order to get ready to the track. We still had one more day to kill before the track so we decided to go to Air New Zealand office in town and try to postpone our flight.
Our original flight out of New Zealand was on the 20th of January, which meant that if we don't postpone it, we will have only 3 weeks left for our trip and we are still only about half way through the south island, not to mention the north island and selling our car. In short, we are very short in time! Any how, we went to their office and asked if they have any place at the 20th of February, which will probably will be enough for us in order to cover all the things we want to do in New Zealand. To our very deep disappointment the Clark at the office said that they don't have any seat left until April. Which means that we very short in time! OK not to panic. Navit had an idea. We will go and try to plan our time very well in order to get the most of our time in New Zealand.
We made a calender describing what we are gonna do for every day till the end of our trip. As anyone who knows me can tell, i hate planning ahead and to be pressured with time. It not my kind of trip. One of the purposes of taking this trip around the world is to relax and take the time and not to run from place to place in order to catch as much as we can.
Anyhow, this was our destiny and we have to deal with it. This also meant immediate consequences. We decide to skip the greenstone track and make the routeburn only in two days.
Since the routeburn is suppose to be a 3 days track, we walk to the 2nd hut in one day (2 days in 1 day - around 10 hours walk) and in the last day we will walk to the end of the track and take the expensive bus back. It sounded reasonable in theory, but in practice it was very hard.
First of all, we had to book all the transport, which is a bus from Queenstown to the start of the Routeburn and then a bus back from the divide to Queenstown.
However, puting our plans aside, the buses was fully booked! The only choice we had was to drive mid way to Glenorchy, leave the car there and then catch the bus to the start of the track. This means that we have to catch a bus from Queenstown to Glenorchy after the track in order to fetch our car back. In order to do so in one day and not have to wait another day we had to catch the 10:15 bus from the divide to Queenstown and then catch the 3:30 bus to Glenorchy and get our car back at the end of the track. The only problem was that since the last day of the Routeburn is about 4 hours walk from the hut, it means that we have to get up at around 5 am and catch the bus. On top of that , the guy at the bus company told us the the bus at 3:30 might be cancelled but we should check again at the next day.
If you got lost in the details I can sum it for you in one sentence : we had 24 hours to finish the 33 kilometer track. And even if we do it that way, it still doesn't guaranty us that we will get our car back the same day we finish the track. As you might think, we were very disappointed and even depressed and we though of cancel the whole thing and forget about the Routeburn. Anyhow this was one of the black days of our trip!
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| From Routeburn Track |
The next day we get up very Early to catch the 9:00 bus from Glenorchy to the start of the Routeburn. Just as we left Queenstown it started raining havely and we were even more bummed. We really didn't wanted to walk this hard first day in the rain and get very wet.
In addition to this, when we got off the bus, the driver told us that it's suppose to rain all day and that it's gone snow tonight. He also added that we shouldn't worry about that since the first day is only 3 hours walk and the next day, it's suppose to be nice. This meant more bad news for us since we planned to squeeze the first 2 days into 1 day. This also meant that we will get very wet and there is a strong possibility that at the pass (the highest point of the track), we will have to walk through snow.
With all this factors, we started walking bummed to death. Of course we got really wet really soon and in our mind we thought about the 10 hours walk ahead of us, We almost wanted to cry. We walked really fast because we wanted to have a boost to the more challenging parts of the track. All this time it was raining like crazy. At that time we just felt like turning back and forgot the whole track and just have a nice hot shower and relax. Nevertheless, we didn't quit and after about 2 hours walk in the rain, it stopped. We were cheered, but still there was a long way ahead of us.
We haven't stopped walking until we reached the Routeburn falls hut, 3 hours from the start.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
We changed out socks (which were soaking wet) and just as we were headed up to pass, we came across 3 Australian boys that just came down from the pass, which told us that there's a blizzard at the pass, and it all covered with snow. You can only imagine what we thought at that moment. We just wanted to jump from the falls and forget all about trekking.
Well we didn't. We just continued walking the hard way up. The sun just came out to say hello and the route became narrower and rockier. At the half way up, the ranger from the last hut catch with us and we talked with about the condition at the pass. He really cheered us up by telling us some stories about Israeli creek which was named after 2 Israelis that got lost in the Routeburn 10 years ago. He also told us that the pass is not very far and that all of the snow has melted. This with connection with the approved weather really cheered us up.
As we got to the pass, the weather got gray again and we really couldn't enjoy the view, which was suppose to be magnificent. Again, another disappointed. It was already 4:00 in the afternoon when we started the decent from the pass to the desired hut.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
Even though that the days are very long in new Zealand and there is light until 22:00 we were still a little bit worried. We had approximately 4 hours walking ahead. We walked on the cliff for about 3 hours seeing nothing but clouds. This 3 hours was suppose to be the nicest ever with magnificent views of the valleys and mountains, but all we could see is clouds. Just as we stared the decent in the steep zig zag down to the hut, we took a look at it from far far above. We understood that there still considerable amount of walking ahead.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
At this point it also stared to snow and the wind started blowing like crazy. We just wanted to get to the hut, put on some warm closes and forget we have to get Early the next day.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
However, the Routeburn still didn't give us a break. The ways down was horrible with huge rocks and Boulders and very steep cliffs. After another 2 hours walking, just when we wanted to give up, we reached the hut. It was 21:00 already and many of the other people went to sleep. On top of that we still had to cook our food.
The ranger at the hut was a little worried about us since we had such late arrival and he was very happy so see us finally. He just took our ticket and went to sleep, happy that he doesn't have to start another search for missing Israelis at the Routeburn.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
Anyhow, we changed , had a quick spaghetti and went to bed very quickly. At about 22:00 we were already a sleep.
The next day we got up at 4:45, when it was still dark. We packed our bags, had a quick morning tea and started walking at around 5:45. We had 4 hours walk and 4:30 hours to get to the bus. Looks reasonable.
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
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| From Routeburn Track |
After about 3 hours of non stopping walking, we still haven't got the last hut which was suppose to be 3 hours from the previous hut, we understood that we are gonna be late. We made it to the hut after 3:20 hours and after a short climb we understood that in order to make it to the bus we need to walk really fast and even run. Well, we actually started running and got to the bus 10 minutes before it got there. We made it! we were very happy to get this thing over with and finally sit in the warm bus and sleep the 4 hours drive back to Queenstown.
As the title says : it was just one track too much...
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| From Routeburn Track |
תגובה 1:
ציפיתי שבסוף מישהו יחכה לכם עם מדליות...סתם
רואים שאיציק כתב את זה, גם יש איזכורים של חישובי הוצאות (יא חסכןן..) וגם אין יותר מדי בלבולי שכל של נשים_(סליחה נוית..)ישר ולעניין..
אוהבת מתגעגעת
ודרך אגב, נזכרתי במשהו:"איציק, האם אכלת כבר את הבמבה שלקחת?"
הוסף רשומת תגובה