New Years on the Routeburn Track

For New Years 2008-9 we decided to do a 3 day trek on the Routeburn Track. There is literally no way to verbalize the beauty and fierceness of nature that we experienced. We quickly learned that in New Zealand the act of hiking is actually called tramping. We also learned that Kiwis have a tendency to underestimate these hikes and call them "Great Walks." We would describe them as expeditions into wild frontier!

With that said, it was the hardest thing both of us have ever done physically or mentally. The sense of accomplishment has increased our understanding of what we are capable of. This 3 day hike is one of the most cherished experiences of our lives.

On New Years Eve we were in a hut near the Routeburn Flats, in the middle of a rainforest with 10 strangers. We were asleep by 8pm and wouldn't have had it any other way.

Happy New Year!

Watch how you go...

Ian & Greg

It turns out we flew above the Routeburn Track on the helicopter a day earlier and happened to capture a shot of the Routeburn Flats and Routeburn Falls Hut...

Day 1: Started out sunny and we were pumped for the 11km gradual climb to Lake Mackenzie

Greg's favorite plant, a budding fern...
Our tent the first night...

Day 2: Rain and wind for our 13.5km to the summit and back down to Routeburn Flats

I look happier than I am...

Day 3: An easy 6.5km down to the end of the track

Outside the Routeburn Flats Hut...

Finally at the end of the track with the sun shining!

Fiordland/Milford Sound Helicopter Tour

Some things in life are meant to be. A few days earlier our helicopter tour/hike of Fox Glacier was canceled due to bad weather. Then, unknowingly, we landed on a glacier during what we thought was just a tour of Milford Sound (see video further down).

There are 2 times in our lives that nature brought us close to tears. The first was looking down at the Upsala Glacier in Patagonia and the other was viewing the Milford Sound from the inside of a helicopter. It's amazing how scale and distance are distorted from above. We'll let the pictures and video speak for themselves.

Watch how you go...

Ian & Greg