South Island Advice

Hello all, This is my first time posting on this site, and I was hoping I could get some advice for an upcoming trip to NZ in December-January. While it probably would have been beneficial for me to have started this thread before booking some of the Great Walks two weeks ago, I still have a wide open calendar and need to figure out how I want to fill it up so that I can maximize my time while I'm in your wonderful country. While I haven't booked my airfare yet my plans currently have me arriving in Queenstown at the start of December and from there I will head down to Te Anau to start the Kepler Track. My reservations for the following two weeks are as follows: Kepler Track: December 6 - Luxmore Hut December 7 - Iris Burn Hut December 8 - Moturau Hut December 9-10: Te Anau Milford Track: December 11 - Clinton Hut December 12 - Mintaro Hut December 13 - Dumpling Hut December 14 - Spending the night at Milford Sound at Milford Sound Lodge Routeburn Track: December 15 - Lake Mackenzie Hut December 16 - Routeburn Falls Hut After completing the Routeburn Track my plans are completely open. I was thinking that I will need to restock on supplies and dry my gear in either Glenorchy or Queenstown before heading back into the mountains since I will essentially be doing the Milford and Routeburn back-to-back, but other than that I have no idea where to go from here. Right now I am thinking that I will want to do the Rees-Dart (with a side trip up Cascade Saddle) or the Wilkin-East Matukituki Route before leaving Mt Aspiring NP, but can't seem to make up my mind on which one to add to the itinerary. Seeing how the Kepler, Milford and Routeburn Tracks will have lots of trampers on the track I feel like I should be looking for a little more solitude at this point in my travels. Because of that I am probably leaning more towards the Wilkin-East Matukituki Route, but could be easily be persuaded otherwise... Before I go any further I should probably give you all a little bit of background about me so that you can tailor your advice accordingly. My name is Andrew and I am a 28-year-old male from the States. After quitting my desk job last May I put about 2,000 kms on and off the track (mostly in the western US) before moving to Australia in March of this year. Before I touch down in NZ I am planning on tramping around Tasmania for the bulk of November, so when you factor that in with all of the other hikes on my agenda (Larapinta, Thorsborne, etc.) I should be ready to hit the ground running (not literally) when I arrive in Queenstown come the beginning of December. While I do not have any technical rock climbing/ice climbing skills, I am very comfortable with scrambling/route-finding and prefer to be above the tree line as much as possible. I really can't emphasize this enough. I love getting high! Really though, the more passes I can incorporate into my treks, the better. While I am an experienced tramper I should note that all of my treks in NZ will be solo. I mention this more in the logistical sense as I will be the only one able to carrying all of my own gear, food and water. Compounding that weight problem is my affinity for carrying my DSLR (5DmkII) with me, which sometimes includes a rather heavy tripod as well. This fact makes me a bit of a pariah over on Backpackinglight, but what can you do... I will say that the camera gear makes me very wary of river crossings. While I have found ways to keep my camera gear dry in rain, I have yet to find a foolproof way of submerging camera without having a panic attack. As far as schedule goes my time in NZ is only limited by my budget, which, while not "extravagant", should be enough to get a solid feel of the South Island. That said, if there was a way to include a trip over to the North Island for the Tongariro Great Walk I would do damn near anything to make it happen. So going back to the Rees-Dart Wilkin-East Matukituki dilemma... I'm aware that the weather in December can be quite erratic at times so I have been thinking that I should gravitate to areas where a rain shadow might provide me cover from mother nature's unpredictability. Not sure if such an area exists in Mt Aspiring NP, but that might be the deciding factor between the Rees-Dart and Wilkin-East Matukituki Route if a noticeable difference exists. So if I go with the latter my itinerary would look something like this: December 17-18: Resupply and rest up in Glenorchy/Queenstown (if doing the Rees-Dart) or Makarora (for the Wilkin-East Matukituki Route) Wilkin-East Matukituki Route (starting from Blue Pools to avoid any issues w/ river crossings): December 19: Young Hut December 20: Siberia Hut December 21: Kevin Forks Hut (side trip to Crucible Lake en route) December 22: Top Forks Hut December 23: Ruth Flat December 24: Arrange Pickup near Cameron Flat off of Wanaka Mount Aspiring Road back to Makarora From Makarora I am at a loss of where to go next. I know I want to attempt the trek described here (http://www.tramper.co.nz/?8459) but I am also planning on spending ~5 days day-hiking around Arthur's Pass NP... Since flying out of Christchurch would probably give me the most flexibility in regards to air travel out of NZ it might make sense to do Arthur's Pass last. So maybe head north on State Highway 6 to get there? Wow... I just scrolled through my wall of text and it's starting to dawn on me that my "questions" have morphed into a novel. In attempt to make life easier on anyone kind enough to provide me with their insight I will go ahead and stop here. For those who just skim through text, my biggest questions I need help solving are: 1) Which track would you recommend for a solo hiker who enjoys high alpine tracks above all else: the Rees-Dart or the Wilkin-East Matukituki Route? 2) If the remaining "musts" on the itinerary include Arthur's Pass NP and Nelson Lakes NP, which order would you do them in? Not sure if it matters but my plan is to head to SE Asia when I leave NZ, so there's that... 3) Any other tracks that I have foolishly left of my list of "musts"? Thanks in advance for all the help!