New Zealand - The Greenstone Caples & Routeburn Tracks

My second side trip off the TA was to do the Greenstone Caples and Routeburn tracks. It adds 5 days onto the TA but is well worth it if you have the time. I camped on the Routeburn on the official sites which I had to book well in advance (3 months!) but as mentioned in my Kepler post you can free camp 500m off the route. Alternatively with a dawn start you could do the Routeburn as a day walk - a long day but well within the range of a fit TA tramper.
Anyway this is what I did - reverse the route if you are a SOBO :-)

Greenstone Caples Track

Day 1 December 2nd  Greenstone Hut to Mid Caples Hut 17km

Very straightforward 5 hour tramp - the tracks are well formed and are a breeze compared to what I had been on in the first week. The huts on Greenstone Caples are all very nice serviced huts (still covered by the hut pass)

Day 2 December 3rd Mid Caples Hut  to McKellar Hut 22km
Mostly forest walking although good views from the McKellar saddle

Day 3  December 4th McKellar Zero Day
Rest day here as my Routeburn booking was not until the 5th. One of the other guys in the hut was a fisherman - so it was brown trout for tea - fresh food - what a novelty!!

The Routeburn Track

Day 4 December 5th   McKellar Hut to Lake Howden Hut 7km
After nearly 3 weeks of good weather on the South Island my luck ran out - on the first day of the Routeburn!

Woke up to a thick mist at McKellar hut - it kind of cleared mid morning and I set off to Lake Howden but by the time I got there this was the scene! Nothing to see folks! I had a camp booked at Lake McKenzie but there was no point in pushing forward in zero visibility and pouring rain so I hung around Howden Hut for a bit - got chatting to an Aussie who was booked into Howden Hut but had decided to walk on to McKellar - he kindly gave me his hut ticket! Sweet As!

Day 5 December 6th Howden Hut to Routeburn Flats Camp 23km

The bad weather only lasted a short while as it often does here. It was a spectacular day with amazing views over the Hollyford Valley, many spectacular waterfalls and beautiful tarns

                        Routeburn Flats camp is a great campsite - day or night!!

Day 6 Routeburn Flats Camp to Routeburn Shelter 7km
All the glamorous scenery was yesterday this was just a 7km forest walk out to Routeburn shelter - I hadn't arranged track transport to Queenstown but luckily there was space on the bus. I arrived early morning at the shelter and probably would have struggled to get a hitch into Queenstown so even at $50 it was well worth it as by midday I was sitting at a lake shore restaurant enjoying a nice chilled glass of SB!