[rubywrangler]

At the end of November I had 4 weeks of vacation time that I needed to use or lose by end of the year, so I flew to Queenstown from Flagstaff (via DFW and AKL) a few days after hiking out of the Grand Canyon. I had spontaneously made reservations for the Tongariro Northern Circuit last summer after reading about it (long before I decided to actually go, because I misunderstood the cancellation policy ) and I got one night on the Kepler track from a cancellation. Otherwise I had no plans. I had been to the South Island in 2017 and had done the Routeburn track, Mueller hut and many of the other dayhikes and overnight hikes in the Lonely Planet "tramping" guidebook on a whirlwind roadtrip. This time I was hoping to stay in the Fiordlands/Mt Aspiring area and do some longer 3-5 day hikes. But December is the rainiest month of the year, so I knew weather would be a deciding factor in my itinerary. Well, the best weather window I got on the South Island was 2 days, so my long trips did not pan out. I still got in a lot of good hiking though Dec 4-5 Kepler Track, Fiordlands NP I used a water taxi from Te Anau and hitched a ride back from the Rainbow Reach car park to cut out ~9.5 miles of flat forest hiking and make this Great Walk doable in two days. The first day was long (~14 miles, 5000' of gain) but most of the climbing is out of the way after the first couple hours so it's doable at a reasonable pace. I took the short side trip to Mt. Luxmore and spent an hour there being entertained by the views and the keas, and still made it to the Iris Burn hut by 4pm. Once above the bushline this is a nice long ridge walk with continuous views of Lake Te Anau and the surrounding peaks of Fiordlands. In addition to a nice waterfall, Iris burn hut has both kiwis (which I heard but didn't see) and glowworms (which I saw) in the vicinity.

kepler track views

new friend/pest

kepler track pano

iris burn

moturau hut view

Dec 7-8 Earnslaw Burn (burn = creek) I made this a loop by hiking in on the long ridge above Earnslaw burn to Lennox pass, then dropping down into the basin at the head of the burn and hiking out the Earnslaw burn track. This turned out to be a good choice because although the ridge only has a faint, intermittent path, it also has great views and is actually easier than the track, which has a lot of erosion and blowdowns. The only downsides are having to cross a very steep and slippery scree slope south of Lennox pass, and the fact that it's an almost 6000' day. There aren't a lot of campsites in the bumpy tussock so I headed for one I had read about in a blog, on a bench at the head of the basin. Very scenic spot below Mt Earnslaw and it's many waterfalls. In the morning I wasn't able to find a direct route down to the basin through the slippery tussock, so I traversed back south and descended the stream gully below Lennox pass, then hiked back up to the pretty basin. I stayed for a little while but left just in time to miss an incoming helicopter. Turns out you can skip the hiking and take a heli tour out here for just $510 NZD! I headed down the valley and picked up the Earnslaw burn track which lived up to it's bad reputation.

traffic jam

looking back to lake wakitipu

earnslaw & burn

richardson mtns & tarns

Snowdrift range & rees river

ridge ahead

back on the ridge after the scree slope

camp view

sunset on earnslaw

sunrise view

spectacular basin!!

looking back upstream

Dec 10-11 North Routeburn, Mt. Aspiring NP This was the big fail of my trip (although it was a scenic fail). Based on the forecast I thought I would have 2 days of decent weather, so I planned to do the "poor man's routeburn" clockwise and hike out in the rain on day 3: Routeburn track to the Routeburn flats hut, up the North Routeburn to Lake Nerine, cross-country from Lake Nerine to Park Pass, out the Rock Burn. With a side trip to the Park Pass Glacier lake which was my main interest. This was a shorter variation of a longer trip I wanted to do, the 5 passes route. But I didn't know if it would be possible to climb North Col at the head of the North Routeburn without an axe and crampons. And even if that was possible, I didn't know if I could make it to Lake Nerine in one day (most parties take 2 days). I still don't know if I could have climbed North Col; I didn't make it that far. And of course I didn't make it to Lake Nerine in one day. Water crossings and relentless brush in the upper North Routeburn slowed my pace to a crawl. I did make it to the head of the North Routeburn and got nice sunset views of Nereus peak. On Day 2 everything was socked in above North Col and I wasn't interested in a zero-visibility visit to Lake Nerine so I hiked out. In retrospect I probably should have just done an in-and-out to Park Pass Glacier lake, but I had to give the loop a shot. Oh well. Next time!

north routeburn from the flats hut

north routeburn tarn

north col

humboldt mtns

swamp

brushy boulders, so fun

bootpath though the brush in this section

yuck

getting worse

maybe this used to mark a trail, but not anymore

cross here (if possible) to climb to north col

sunset on nereus

sunset on nereus

morning camp view

humboldt mtns

got out just in time

Dec 13-15 Gillespie Pass circuit, Mt. Aspiring NP Typically a 3-4 day trip that I squeezed into a 2.5 days due to weather. I used Wilkins River Jets on both ends to cut out river crossings and some miles. Day 1 was an easy hike up the Young River and the South fork Young to Young Hut, which I shared with a couple from SLC. I had my own room, which was unusual and nice. On Day 2 the route continues to Young basin and then climbs steeply to a saddle south of Gillespie pass with stunning views of Mt Awful and the surrounding area. Then it drops to Siberia creek. The descent is less steep overall but involves a lot of annoying and slippery root ladders. At Siberia creek I turned right and followed trail markers to the Lake Crucible track. This track climbs (more roots) 1000' in about 0.3 mile out of the Siberia Creek valley, then a long 2 miles at a more gentle grade up the valley to Lake Crucible. Definitely a worthwhile side trip, but probably better in the morning as far as photos go. I stayed for about an hour before retracing my steps back to Siberia creek and heading down the valley to Siberia hut. This hut has great views and a really nice waterfall nearby. Overnight the weather arrived, but it was only about an hour of hiking in the rain to the jetboat pickup spot.

makarora river

young hut

young basin

ridge pano

mt awful

awful roots

mt dreadful

crucible valley

crucible lake

wind pushed all the icebergs to the east side

cool cliffs

weather is coming

siberia hut

siberia hut evening view

siberia hut morning view

our savior

Dec 16 Brewster hut, Mt. Armstrong, Brewster glacier, Mt Aspiring NP For my last good weather day on the South Island, I wanted to climb a peak. The lakes were a bonus. The Brewster track is very steep, but not bad compared to the Lake Crucible track! I cruised up past all the early birds Mt Brewster was socked in when I got to Brewster hut but it momentarily cleared as I hiked above the hut - the only appearance of the day. I left the trail and climbed the northwest slope of Mt. Armstrong. It was straightforward with one easy cliff band to navigate (class 3). The last few hundred feet below the summit were mostly snow, with enough melted out rock to avoid it if you wanted. Views were cloudy and intermittent. I waited awhile for a clear view but it never materialized. I descended a slightly different route and picked up the trail to the glacier and lakes. This is a really spectacular spot, and I wish I would've camped there!

hut view

best view of brewster all day

leaving the trail, mt armstrong summit in the left background

looking toward summit

summit view

huxley range, probably

as good as it got

brewster glacier & lakes

brewster lakes

me time

spot the tiny humans

spot the tiny human checking out the nice campsite

brewster hut from above

brewster track

Dec 20-22 Tongariro Northern Circuit, Tongariro NP This is a loop around Mt Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom as LOTR fans know) and a portion of the loop is the (in)famous Tongariro alpine crossing - the most popular dayhike in New Zealand. Thousands of people hike it on a sunny summer day. Luckily(?) I hiked that section on an extremely windy day - and got a 5:45am start - so avoided the crowd. The volcanic landscape was a real shock to the system after the wet, green South Island. I spent one night at Mangatepopo hut and one night at Waihohonu hut, but Oturere hut (the middle one) has the best views.

pukekaikore & mt ngauruho

sunset on taranaki from mangatepopo hut

starting up the tongariro crossing

cool clouds and light

first of many camo toilets

stairway to the crater

south crater

red crater

blue lake

emerald lakes

looking back on descent route

lava flow

ngauruhoe & red crater

oturere falls

en route to waihohonu hut

en route to waihohonu hut

ruapehu

upper tama lake

taranaki falls

Many more photos on flickr

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Wow! Awful and Dreadful don't look at all awful or dreadful to me. So many of these pics, I just kept thinking that scenery must've been in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Brewster Lakes look amazing.

[Snowdog]

Wow Rubywrangler! Great TR & great photos! Thank you for sharing. Makes me want to go back.

[Prosit]

Fantastic, ... inspirational. Thanks for sharing!!

[The Ghost of Bear 380]

WOW!! So good!

[Nancyann]

Thanks for taking the time to put together such an excellent trip report with so many details and fabulous pictures. I would love to go there someday, but in the meantime at least I can live vicariously through your adventures!

[Now I Fly]

A bit jealous, but mainly extremely thankful for your wonderful report! You bagged some wonderful memories, and once again I am left inspired. Thanks, B

[rubywrangler]

Thank you everybody! Nolan, I think Mt Earnslaw was also in one of the movies, and Tongariro of course, but not sure about the others. There are many, many LOTR-themed tours on both islands, but I didn't do any of them.

[Bootpathguy]

[Stefan]

Yeah. Well. That makes a lot of us jealous!!! Great show!

[shelby147]

Really nice photos! Now you make me want to visit New Zealand...

[mbravenboer]

Stunning! I have been collecting New Zealand intel for a while for a future dream trip. This one goes into that folder too . Thanks!

[HitTheTrail]

Brings back some very nice memories. Thanks for posting. My wife and I spent 2 weeks in the south island and 1 week in the north island. But our outdoor adventure was a bit limited since we had our 6 month old daughter with us! When we were driving up the Haast River we stopped in a small store and bumped into a guy we knew from the Middle East. Small world.