“Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.” (Routeburn Track, Day 2)

March 9

This lyric from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, Hamilton, has been drifting in and out of my head since we arrived in NZ, and even more so today, the second and most memorable day of the Routeburn Track. It was another picture-perfect blue sky day for our 7 mile hike. How are we so fortunate to have such perfect weather for our second day of hiking? Finally, an opportunity to wear shorts and use an item of clothing I’ve been lugging for five days. “Be bold, start cold” as the guides said, daring us to start off cold, wearing fewer layers in the chilly morning air, confident that I’ll warm up quickly as I start hiking and climbing yet again.

After gathering for a group picture at Lake Mackenzie, we began our hike with a steady ascent through beech forest and saw the beautiful lake below us.

Once we were out of the tree line, we were blessed with even more incredible views of the lake and the Darran Mountains.

On the way up, we stopped for a short water break and photo op overlooking the Hollyford Valley at the Hollyford Valley lookout. Then, we continued our hike up the ridge line of the alpine track, where it got very narrow and steep in sections.

We continued hiking up the trail until we finally reached the Harris Saddle, the highest point on the track.

We arrived at the Harris Saddle Shelter for lunch and joined the other hikers in our group, who were leaning against the shelter and basking in the sun.

We were all perfectly content to sit and eat and simply enjoy our beautiful surroundings. I half expected some Hobbits to come traipsing across the landscape, it was so reminiscent of a LOTR movie set.

Mitch decided quite last minute to take the optional side trip up to Conical Hill, an additional hour and a half round trip climb to 4,545 ft, an extra 800 ft of extremely steep and rocky elevation, for even more panoramic views of the Tasman Sea and Milford Sound. Here is his commentary on that excursion:

“It was a bit nuts to do it and when I started climbing, I nearly stopped and turned around 3 times. In some places, just small ledges of rocks for footholds allowed me to hoist myself up the flat face of the rock, and at other places, it was a narrow passage along the mountainside with steep falloff drops below.”

“I kept asking myself why I was doing it? I kept my head down never wanting to look up to the summit as it was nerve racking and scary at times. If you’re afraid of heights, you would have really, really hated this. I became more consumed with how I was going to get down safely the higher the climbing I did. At times, I nearly lost the trail. The Department of Conservation (A.K.A. DOC), spray painted orange dots on rocks and the rock faces to mark the way. They also spray painted orange numbers on rocks with zero being the summit. I finally figured out the number system half way up the route. Sometimes poles in the ground or rocks with orange tops signified the route. Other times red warning signs said no stopping for fear of falling rocks from hikers above or just parts of the mountain crumbling off from above.”

“How stupid was this, I kept asking myself. And so even further I climbed up through crevices until I finally reached the summit and pulled myself up as the final steps were up yet another flat rock face with barely any footholds. There, I found Kate, one of our guides waiting for us hikers foolish enough to dare this climb. She smiled, said congrats and snapped a few photos of me to celebrate the occasion.”

“Then, after taking it all in for about 15 minutes or so, I began the descent, slowly, very, very slowly, trying to maneuver the easiest and safest way back down the mountain. 90 minutes or so later, I made it! Looking back up at the mountain, my adrenaline was pumping as I couldn’t believe I survived without breaking a leg or an arm.”

“I was back down the hill and rested in the shelter before continuing the hike down into the Routeburn Valley to meet up with Victoria at the lodge.”

I opted out and continued on with the hike, relishing the opportunity to hike alone and have some contemplative “me” time. Mitch had my phone as his ran out of space so he captured most of the pics on his way down to the lodge.

As if the hike couldn’t get any more breathtaking, once I left the lunch spot, Lake Harris appeared below along with expansive views over the mountains.

I continued to be amazed at what I saw. Another few miles brought me to the Routeburn Valley and eventually to our final lodge of the hike, Routeburn Falls Lodge.

I arrived early and got some laundry done before it got busy. Mitch arrived while I was relaxing on the deck, enjoying a glass of wine with some other hikers.

After dinner we retired for the evening, joining a couple from Barcelona as our roommates for the second night in a row. Bunking with strangers was actually no big deal and it was an amusing game of finger pointing in the morning as to who the snoring culprit was.

Excited for one final day of hiking in what projected to be good weather, we fell asleep in a pitch black room to the sound of a river running next to our cabin, drowning out the snorers.