We are still in Queenstown. On Sunday, we headed out of town to the trailhead for one of the New Zealand Great Walks, the Routeburn Track. This is a three-day hike through amazing mountains with stops at mountain huts along the way. Since we want to sleep in beds and take showers, we just hiked in part of the first day’s hike and then hiked back out. It was a good hike though, covering 9.4 miles and 1,306 feet of elevation gain.

To reach the trailhead, we drove an hour and a half out of Queenstown.  We got an early start but had to pause for pictures of the sunrise.

 

Because this is a Great Walk, there are facilities at the trailhead with toilets and information. Here we go.

 

 

One of the highlights of the hike was the beautiful river with unbelievably clear turquoise water, deep pools, and rocky rapids.

 

 

 

The trail was as wide as a New Zealand freeway and perfectly clear of roots and other trip hazards. We walked through a Beech forest. It was Red Beech at the lower elevations of the trail and Mountain Beech above. It was deeply wooded and very pretty and pleasant to walk through. And no bugs at all.

 

 

But, of course, there were swing bridges. I am getting a little braver…but I still hold on with both hands!

There were massive glades thick with ferns, some taller than Janet. They would look giant to Hobbits, as some Lord of the Rings filming was done here. These mountains served as the Misty Mountains in the Lord of the Rings and a nearby Beech forest hosted scenes of Lothlorien, the elven kingdom. We did not, however, see Galadriel or (thank goodness) any orcs. But I was definitely ready for my “second breakfast” and “elevensies”.

 

We reached our destination of the Routeburn Flats Hut. I have been talking about these huts and now you can see one.

There were indoor and outdoor cooking and eating areas with sinks for washing dishes.

This is the indoor cooking area and the communal area with a nice woodstove. And then there are numerous rooms with pretty good looking bunk beds. For through-hikers this would mean they wouldn’t have to bring a tent, sleeping pad, cooking stove, and fuel. They would however, need some good earplugs.

 

 

This was the view of the main building. There were outbuildings with FLUSH!! Toilets and more dorm rooms. Then there is a picture looking down the valley we have just hiked up.

 

As we head back to the trailhead, there were just a couple more pools I couldn’t resist photographing.

 

That was our Routeburn Track hike. In a few days, when we are staying in Te Anua, we may do a day-hike from the other end of the track. That would mean we had hiked both ends and just missed the middle third (which is, of course, the highest, hardest, and most challenging).

Today, Monday, we had a quiet day and visited the Kiwi Animal Park. It was fun. We got to see the following birds and animals.

The Lorikeet, introduced to New Zealand from Australia. https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/rainbow-lorikeet

We saw the Kea. A species of parrot endemic to New Zealand. These pictures that I took show the unusual shape of the feathers. The picture with the wing spread I copied from the website linked below. Check out this website for more information and pictures. These are original cheeky Kiwi birds. I have watched videos of them attacking the rubber seals surrounding windshields on cars. They can evidently also tear up an entire vinyl roof on a car. https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/kea

 

 

 

This is a Tuatara. It is not a lizard, but actually has more characteristics in common with birds. It is ancient, ancient, ancient having roamed the earth before T-Rex. They have been recently rediscovered and they are believed to live well over 100. They are not sure how long they actually live because they outlive all their keepers and conservation experts. Like me, when the weather gets cool, they retreat into their burrows, their heart rate and breathing slow, and they go into a state of torpor. I just call it taking a nap. Meet Brutus, the Kiwi Park’s most famous Tuatara.

 

This little guy is a Ruru, the only owl native to New Zealand. They are born killers and made to hunt. Their eyes take up 75% of their skull. They could count the French fries on our plate from a quarter mile away. They fly silently which is really eerie. https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/morepork

 

I know you have all been waiting to see a Kiwi and here is one. Unfortunately, this one has met the taxidermist. You see, Kiwi’s are nocturnal and so they are pretty hard to find. You can see they are big birds, about the size of a chicken. They are flightless and with their long beak they can find all kinds of creepy, crawly, goodies in the soil. But at the Kiwi Park, there is an exhibit that you can enter that is completely dark where, after our eyes adjusted, we could see the live Kiwi pecking about busily. One of the amazing things about Kiwi is that they lay huge eggs. We saw an x-ray of a Kiwi carrying an egg and it pretty much completely filled their body. If humans gave birth to proportionately sized babies, our newborns would weigh 35 pounds! It was pretty cool. Read more here. https://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/southern-brown-kiwi

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Possum, brought over from Australia for the fur trade. They flourished (unfortunately) and by the 90’s there were more than 80 million. More Possum than sheep. They are predators destroying many bird species and driving them to near distinction. They are now hunted and trapped and made into sweaters, hats, gloves, socks and all kinds of knitted goods that are very soft and comfy.

That was our day at the Kiwi Park and our last day in Queenstown. Tomorrow we head further south to the town of Te Anau.

Thanks for reading and traveling along with us.

Kia ora,

Coe & Janet