I think I want to live this life for some time to come.

 

Words can not describe how amazing the Routeburn is. It is possibly the most beautiful place in the world, with no exaggeration. All of the other tracks I've done here have been mind blowing, and otherworldly, but the Routeburn has something really special about it. We did it in three days, and decided against connecting with the greenstone due to bad weather, and being a little bit sick.

The whole time I was thinking about Princess Mononoke, the forest we were walking through looked exactly like the forest from Mononoke. The first night we camped away from the DOC Hut for free. If you stay 500 meters away you can camp for free, it worked well the first night. We were in this breathtaking valley, with crazy huge rain forst covered mountains rising unto snow caped peaks.

Zach brought his guitar and we spent the first night playing music and exploring around the valley. The next day after sneaking into the hut to snag some water, we continued up to the falls. The falls were spectacular, and lead up to the flats. This was a high mountain plain. Lots of camel colored grass and huuuge boulders scattered around ponds and rolling hills surrounded by peaks. We continued on to find a beautiful lake and a view that pulls the heart strings. The elation at seeing the view from up there is irreplaceable and unforgettable. The path leads you along the side of a mountain overlooking the hollyford valley below, another track I would love to do, and you feel like you're in Lord of The Rings. They filmed several scenes there. As we neared the next hut, the weather started to turn bad. We descended in time before the rain really started to hit. We looked around for a place to camp, for free again, but walked to close to the wardens hut and he found us setting up our tent not 500 meters, but around 200 meters away. Not far enough. Normally you have to pay a fine for doing this, but since we were nice, wet, cold, and a huge massive storm was coming in, he just had us pay for a normal camp site, $15, and call it good. So we did this, set up the tent in a rain storm, cooked food, and crawled in our wet wet tent. As the night grew, we were in the most intense storm. Super windy and dumping rain. Everything, including everything inside our

backpacks was wet by the morning. The whole tent was flooded, and our sleeping bags were done for. When we woke up I was in the best of moods, I like intense things like that. So we packed up as the wind and rain still howled, ate, and met these two girls from Canada. We made friends, and hiked down together. The rain slowed down and the hike out was just as awe inspiring as the rest. The girls were nice enough to give us a ride to Te Anu.

                                         Here are some photos of  hitching to the trail head

Zach and I are now hitching up to Christchurch. We waited for a really long time on the road last night and were about to crawl into bed on the side of the road when a really nice couple picked us up. We were happily driving farther north and the let us stay in their home for the night. Fed us delicious fresh eggs and toast from their chickens, tea with milk from the cows out back. Mmmm. It was really fantastic, warm and cozy.

Now we head north and Zach and I fly out of Nelson back to Auckland on monday. Then we see the Gorillaz live!!! And spend the hollidays with zach and his father!

FAREWELL!