December 19

Routeburn Flats to MacKenzie Lake across Harris Saddle

I got up at 7:30, after the Germans. It was sunny again, and I had breakfast and got on the trail at 9 AM. Everything up to the saddle was familiar from yesterday, except that the lighting was now from the east instead of the west. Today there were high-altitude ice clouds, some in interesting oval shapes. I arrived at the Harris Saddle Shelter at 11 AM, just before the group on the guided walk. They have kerosene cookers and water in a locked closet here so the guided walkers can have tea.

The Hollyford Valley was a little cloudier than yesterday, with clouds lining the mountain ridges across the valley. I decided to climb Conical Hill again. Since I knew a good route already, it was faster today. The Tasman Sea was still visible, at Martin's Bay. I stayed on top a while, and then had lunch at the saddle hut, relaxing in the sun a while before continuing on.

After dropping a ways on the other side of the saddle, the trail remained relatively level, following the Hollyford Valley, high above it. There were no trees to block the views. Some blue-roofed buildings were visible next to the river below, along Hollyford Road. You didn't really get the feeling of being quite as isolated here as on the Milford Track, and a couple of roads could be seen. The trail started to climb some more, and you could see all the way back down the valley to Martin's Bay again. At one point, the trail passed under an overhang. Steep cliffs often dropped off sharply to the right. A "Deadman's Route" led steeply down into the valley from the track, without clear markings.

Turning a corner, MacKenzie Lake became visible far below, with MacKenzie lake on its shore. This was today's destination. The trail followed along more steep cliffs, the kind that made a friend of mine afraid of heights during an earlier trip here. The trail was steep in places, and I passed some people who were making unusually slow, cautious progress, clearly concerned about falling. The track descended gently down switchbacks ("zigzags" in New Zealand), entered a forest, and arrived at the lake near the hut. This forest was denser and mossier than the one on the other side of the saddle, and reminded me more of the Milford rainforests.

The lake still covered part of the trail, and a detour was marked by orange plastic arrows through the forest. It was a rather long detour, climbing over tree roots and mossy rocks, but it was beautiful with the sunlight filtering down through the leaves. I arrived at the hut at 5:30. The kitchen and bunk house were in separate buildings, although I noticed later that there were also some beds upstairs from the kitchen through an outside stairway. The bunk house was large, but densely packed, with double-level sleeping shelves, not individual beds like at Flats Hut or Falls Hut. It was about 2/3 full, and I found room on the bottom shelf.

I fixed dinner, and met a couple from Aukland. The man was a physics teacher. We talked a little about physics and the internet, since I am a particle physicist myself, and part-owner of an internet service provider VIC in Knoxville. We also talked a while about the US. I also met some Canadians. I ran into the hut warden outside and gave him my ticket. Then he went around the hut collecting tickets. He said it would be cloudy tomorrow, and rain late in the day as the current high moved out and a low came in from the north.

I met a couple of people on the porch who had been to Nepal several times. They mentioned how Kathmandu had changed. I agreed that the air was very bad now, and that if something isn't done, tourists will not want to stay in Thamel any more. As we talked, the sun began to set, so I hurried to the bunkhouse to get my cameras. The sunset was beautiful, with the clouds above the mountains to the west turning bright orange briefly. I was one of the first to notice this, so I was able to get a few pictures from down by the lake before the sky faded.

Later, I talked to a Canadian for a while. He studied paleo-botany once, and was fascinated by the many ancient plant species in New Zealand, especially the "monkey tail puzzle" plant, which is an early conifer. It has broad leaves all down the stems, encircling them, and an unprotected seed-fruit at the end, with no actual cone around it. They are popular shrubberies in New Zealand.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1996. All rights reserved.