By Ruth

Distance: 31 km

After a rainy night’s sleep in the tent, we woke up early to make sure we would have time for today’s big walk. When we got out of the tent, the sky had cleared and the stars were out. We scarfed a snack bar for breakfast and began walking by headlamp-light.

For the first few hours we powered along as the sun slowly rose, lighting up the mountains across the valley.

The Routeburn is a Great Walk which means it is maintained to a very high standard, and so we can walk much faster than most other tracks. That’s why we felt we could tackle the whole thing in one day (DOC recommends 2-3 days).

As we approached the first hut we began to see lots more people. We stopped there for a quick breakfast, then headed up towards Harris Saddle. We passed a lot of people on the way up which was great for our egos.

Originally I thought we would have lunch at the saddle but we got there earlier than expected so we pushed on past Harris Lake and down to the next hut before stopping. On the way down we passed a DOC ranger doing some weed whacking along the side of the trail. Somehow he could tell we were TAs because he stopped to chat with us and ask us all about TA. After we had been talking for a few minutes he took us a bit down the trail and showed us this plant called mountain aniseed which smells just like liquorice. Yum.

We had a lovely lunch at Routeburn Falls hut, another beautiful hut with flush toilets and the works. From there it was only a few more hours down through the forest and along a bright blue river to the parking lot.

Once we arrived at the end of the trail, a little after 4 pm, we hitched a ride back into Queenstown and were here with plenty of time to find a place to stay and get dinner. It was a long day but the walking was truly such a pleasure, and the scenery so stunning and varied, that it didn’t even feel hard.