Routeburn...

This was my first ever real backpacking trip. We went for 3 days to this beautiful hike called the Routeburn Trek that is 32 Kilometers. It was awesome and incredibly hard at the same time.

The first day wasn't so bad but the first time you are hiking with a massive pack on your back and you are not used to hiking with said heavy pack (that weighs about 30 lbs) is a little bit hard. So basically the track was uphill for the first 3 hours and then it evened out and even went downhill a little. Fortunately for me I had my hiking buddy Lindsay with me who likes to hike slow, like I do, to bring up the rear with me. Actually I was quite proud of us because we weren't even at the back the whole way, and believe me we like to take our time.

That night we got to sleep in huts, which were basically just rooms with big bunk beds to sleep on. Unfortunately none of us got a terribly good night's sleep because it was a snoring jamboree in that room. I am typically a very heavy sleeper and can sleep through anything, but even I was woken up by the sheer amount of snoring in that room. It was truly the loudest thing I've ever heard. I don't know how that much noise could come out of people.

The next day was a super beautiful day and we got up and hiked along the ridge of the mountain which I really loved. There were stunning views










of huge mountains and huge canyons. It was the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. The second day was easily my favorite, mostly because it was quite flat or downhill the whole way, which my legs appreciated, but I also loved hiking along the side of the mountain and being able to look at the views.

The last day was a super easy day and we only hiked for about 2 hours before we got back to the cars. It was also lovely because we were so close to Queenstown (which I'll talk about my first visit there in a different blog) we stopped and got Ferg Burgers. I'll save the description for the Queenstown blog, but lets just leave it at they were the most delicious things I have ever tasted in my life. I am driving 2 hours to go back there just so I can have one again. And my sweet director Brad, treated all 11 of us to burgers as well and these are $10 burgers. So it was a great end to a beautiful hike.