The Roadtrip: Earnslaw Burn & Glenorchy

Kia ora friends!  My roadtrip is finished (the first part, anyway) and it's time to share my journey with you.  After my last day of work (almost a month ago now?!) I had a day around Te Anau to pack up and say goodbye.  Early the next morning I hopped on a bus to Queenstown, where Lyn picked me up and our adventure began.  We stocked up on food and supplies for the next ten days and headed out to Glenorchy, at the head of Lake Wakatipu, to tackle our first walk up the Earnslaw Burn:

The night before starting our walk, we camped at Kinloch, a nice DOC campsite on the edge of the lake.  This was our view.

Our friend and Lyn's now former flatmate Aaron joined us for this walk.  Early the next morning, the three of us set out from Kinloch to the start of the Earnslaw Burn track.  We parked and started walking (and Lyn and I pretty much didn't stop for another week).

Looking back down the first bit of the track, with Lake Wakatipu waaay out in the distance in the upper left corner.

We walked through some beautiful beech forest.

First glimpse of our destination, Mt Earnslaw and the Earnslaw Glacier at the head of the valley.

Camp for the night.  Mt Earnslaw (2830 m / 9285 ft) and Earnslaw Glacier not far away.

The night was COLD but beautiful.

Chilly morning walk up to the head of the valley.

Mt Earnslaw and the Earnslaw Glacier.  This area was used as one of the sets during the filming of The Hobbit and the pictures I saw looked incredible, which I'll admit was my whole motivation for adding this walk to our list.  The waterfalls weren't quite as large as I'd expected (which actually makes sense because it's getting cold and things aren't melting so much anymore), but it's still a gorgeous spot eh?

Lyn and I crossed the river to check out this rock bivy on the way back.  Pretty sweet.

We finished the Earnslaw Burn and stayed at Kinloch again for the night, but this time in the Lodge there.  What a treat - hot water and beds and a chance to do laundry.  In chatting with the owners the night we camped, we mentioned that we (used to) work for DOC in Te Anau and they invited us to have a free night's stay in their lodge as a famil.  We weren't expecting it, but of course we couldn't turn that down...

The next day we organized ourselves to start the Rees-Dart Track, and took a little walk out to beautiful Lake Sylvan, close to the start of the Routeburn Track, as recommended by Lyn's local friend Radka:

Lake Sylvan.

The waterfront in Glenorchy.  You can understand why people got "stuck" here when they started exploring this region of the country in the 1800s.

The old depot from the days when the only way to get in and out was by steamship on Lake Wakatipu.  There are some informational displays inside that show diary excerpts from this time period, referencing boat days as the most exciting days of the week!  The road from Queenstown to Glenorchy was finally opened in the 60s and boat travel up to the head of the lake has since seen a big decrease.

Radka treated us to a delicious pasta bake for dinner that evening, and early the next morning we set out to start the Rees-Dart Track...read about it here.