Advice hiking in Queenstown / Wanaka area
I am coming to New Zealand for a week or so at the start of January next year and was hoping to do a 1 or 2 night hike whilst there. For the hike looking for great scenery and the fewer people the better. Very happy to camp as opposed to stay in huts. I am flying into Queenstown and planning on driving from there up to Christchurch to fly out. I will be with a companion and have done a fair bit of hiking before and are reasonably fit. I have listed some thoughts below on potential hikes and would appreciate any comments on these and any other suggestions of other hikes.
- I had initally thought to do the routeburn track(I realise this wil be crowded but thought the spectacular scenery would make it worthwhile) but unfortunately the hut and campsites at Lake Mackenzie are booked out for the week i am there. One option would be to stay at routeburn flats and walk to lake howden in a day, would this be possible for a reasonably fit person to do without killing themselves? Would another option be to stay at the non DOC campsite at the head Lake Mackenzie that I read about on this site? Is it generally easy to find spots 500m+ off the track to camp at?
- Hump Ridge track. I know this is not that close to Queenstown but thought that the scenery looked pretty good and they have availability
- Gillespie Pass circuit. thought trhis looks good with the added excitement of a jet boat ride.
Any advice about what would be the best option would be appreciated.
32 comments
Based on the elevation profiles and lengths I would do a track like Routeburn in 2 days and Kepler in 3 if it was in the USA, but since you guys have some pretty serious weather in NZ, I figure it's worth it to budget extra days. For instance, I'd hate to travel 12,000 km to the South Island only to have weather completely block out the high views I'm paying through the nose on my airfare to come see. I have read so many trip reports that go like, 'had a great time on Milford, but the weather was bad and the visibility was next to zero the day I did Mackinnon Pass.' I think I'll leave the tent at home and take advantage of the huts though; that kind of accommodation in crazy expensive in the US national parks, but $54 NZ doesn't seem too crazy to be able to drop a couple kilos from my pack weight by not bringing the tent, pad, stove, and fuel (maybe I'll bring my smaller pack too) while being able to cook on a real stove. The extra day for Routeburn is to have some time to leisurely go up the North Branch of the Route Burn. I saw a video of it from November 2010 that just looked spectacular.
Of course if Cascade Saddle ends up looking pretty snow-free by when I make my bookings, I'll definitely have to cut some time from Routeburn and eliminate Kepler to fit Rees-Dart+Cascade Saddle in instead.
i prefer the routeburn in three, the huts are at such fantastic locations you have to stop and relax there...
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| Forum | Tracks, routes, and huts |
|---|---|
| Started by | sjosha |
| On | 8 December 2011 |
| Replies | 31 |
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