Hiking New Zealand’s Routeburn Track with kids was a truly amazing experience.   Our family spent a wonderful four days/three nights walking the Routeburn Track in late March of 2018.

I can’t think of enough superlatives when describing what a special and fun alpine walk the Routeburn is. The Routeburn Track is one of the best walks that I’ve done in New Zealand or other parts of the world with my family.  I loved the mountains, the lakes, the beech forest, the crystal clear rivers, the waterfalls, and the birds!  The huts during the great walk season were incredible and the weather was good enough for us to truly appreciate the walk.

Routeburn Track Overview

32 km one way, 1 day to 4 days.

High point is 1,255 meters; trail heads each about 500 meters.

This track can be hiked in either direction or can be combined with other walks to make a longer walk, such as the Greenstone – Caples Track.

Located in the south-western part of the South Island of New Zealand in Fjordland National Park and Mount Aspiring National Park.

For more information on the logistics and FAQ of hiking the Routeburn read this other post.

Hiking New Zealand’s Routeburn Track With Kids

The Routeburn Track is another of New Zealand’s Great Walks and we were super excited about it. Unlike most people who do this walk in three days, we decided to take four days/three nights for this walk.  We wanted to take our time and go slow, giving us plenty of time to take detours, hang out, and explore the area.  It took a long time planning and effort to get here, so I want to make sure we take our time and soak it all up without rushing.

The Routeburn Track can be walked in two directions and we chose to start at the Divide and walk towards the Routeburn Shelter.  Our main reason for this was because we would then finish near Glenorchy, giving us a short bus ride to Queenstown when we finished.

Once all the planning and packing were done we headed to Te Anau to spend the last night before starting our walk.  In the morning, after waking up we headed over to the DOC ranger station to pick up our hut tickets and catch the bus to the Divide to start our walk.  We were feeling pretty good, other than being super cold!  Unfortunately for us, the start of our walk happened to be on a freezing day.

I remember being shocked when the bus dropped us off at the Divide at how cold it felt.  It was a cloudy, rainy, wet day as we pulled gloves and hats out of our bags before starting the walk.  At that point I was feeling a little bit concerned and not super enthusiastic.  Usually I am the one in our family keeping everyone else’s spirits up when we are hiking because I love it so much.  But, that first day was going to be tough.  I kept my fears and misgivings to myself because I didn’t want to infect the kids and wanted us to have a good time.

Luckily, the first day was a super short walk to the Lake Howden hut about two hours away with a detour to Key Summit.  The kids didn’t seem to mind the cold too much and were good walkers.  Nobody was feeling like spending any more time outside than necessary and when I made us all stop to take the detour to Key Summit everyone was a bit bummed.  We climbed to Key Summit and as we did so the mist turned into falling snow.  We had zero view.  Supposedly, Key Summit has an amazing view, but in two visits I have yet to see anything.

We quickly descended and made our way to the hut where we grabbed some bunks and then spent the rest of the afternoon inside trying to stay warm and dry around the little fireplace. I was so glad that was our short day because the snow fell around the hut all afternoon.   We were inside, drinking Milo, playing cards, and hanging out while other people stumbled in to get warm for a minute before heading off to face the snow and cold.

The snow fell for a several hours, accumulating on the ground and trees, but by evening the skies began to clear up.  We all managed to stay warm in our sleeping bags that night.  Needless to say that first day we didn’t have very good views of the mountains, but that would soon change.

On our second day we woke up to clear skies, a very cold day, and beautiful snow capped peaks around us. I mean it was awesome!  The surrounding peaks and ridges had a beautiful fresh dusting of snow on them.   That day and the rest of the trip were one of those magical days in the mountains, where you have good weather, good views, great company, and life just feels perfect.

We made the short 3-4 hour hike to the next hut (Lake McKenzie hut) and got some views of the Hollyford valley and the Darran Mountains across the way.  Most of our views were through the trees, but they were enough to get us super excited to be in the mountains and exploring this area together as a family.

We were the first ones to arrive at McKenzie Hut because the other trampers were walking father than us that day.  After a little lunch we began to explore the area.  In front of the hut was a beautiful mountain Lake surrounded by snow capped peaks.   Along the lakeshore were a smattering of boulders that proved to be a perfect playground for climbing and exploring on.  The kids spent a lot of time climbing around and exploring the rocks.

This is one of the things that we love about tramping and hiking, just exploring and playing in the outdoors together.  We don’t always need to be taking long walks or climbing the tallest peaks as long as we are outside enjoying nature.  Sometimes it is just so nice to relax and soak it all up.

The Lake was a brilliant green color and was surrounded by a Beech forest that came right down to the shoreline.  The scene really couldn’t be any nicer for someone who loves mountains.  The track description for the Routeburn says that it is an alpine track, and it most definitely is!

The next part of the walk, the third day for us, is where I felt the track went from being really nice to being absolutely spectacular.  The trail climbs up from the Lake above the bush line into the tussock and stays above the bush line most of the day as it follows the Hollyford Valley to the Harris Saddle!

Along the way towards Harris Saddle the trail stays high along the side of the Hollyford valley. The views are stunning just about the entire time because you are above the trees and in the tussock.

Harris Saddle is one of those amazing, iconic locations that you have definitely seen in photos because it is so spectacular.  From a shelter at the saddle you can see up and down the Hollyford Valley to the Divide and down to the Tasman Sea.  You can also see the mountains across the valley on the other side.  Looking across at those far valleys left me wondering what it would be like to go exploring up in there.

From the shelter at Harris Saddle you have a short climb before you are hit smack in the face with another jaw dropping view.  After the climb you finally see the amazing lakes that sit on the Routeburn/Glenorchy side of the saddle and you can see down the Routeburn valley.

We walked past some lakes whose surface was like a mirror reflecting the surrounding mountains.  We then negotiated some cliffs and began the long descent towards home for the night at the Routeburn Falls hut.

The walk down from Harris Saddle wasn’t too difficult and was a joy as we continued to have different views of the valley, getting glimpses of the lakes from different angles, side canyons, and peaks.  Finally, just before arriving at the Routeburn Falls hut we came across the Routeburn falls itself.

Yet again, our short days meant that we were among the first arrivals at the hut and we had our choice of bunks.  We then were lucky enough to sit at a vacant table in the communal eating area next to the windows.  The Routeburn Falls hut is like a fancy house perched high up on the side of a mountain with amazing views down the valley below.  From the long porch or the tables in the eating area the views are stunning.

We spent the afternoon hanging out at that table drinking hot liquids, reading, playing cards, or exploring the area near the hut.  I felt like we were hanging out at an exclusive resort or restaurant because the views were so incredible.  I’m sure the kids didn’t appreciate the views as much as we did, but they had fun wandering around the area and looking for Keas.  Man, those views from the Routeburn Falls hut were easily the nicest views from any of the huts on the track.

The next day we woke up, ate our porridge, and drank our instant coffee (yum…not!), before packing up. This last day was spent going down through the Beech forest to the Routeburn Flats hut where we hung out by the river skipping stones for some time.

That final day turned out to be a day of seeing lots of cool birds.  Right by the Flats hut we saw several Yellowhead birds and then we saw a number of Robins.  The kids loved to disturb the dirt with their shoes and then hold still to watch the Robins come over.  A couple of times the Robins even got on their shoes!

From the Flats hut the trail was a mixture of flat and down (with one uphill!) as we slowly made our way down towards the trailhead.  The river got bigger and bigger and we saw more and more other trampers.  We slowly came to the realization that our last few magical days were quickly coming to an end as we approached the end of our trail.

We still enjoyed hiking through the beech forest and crossing over the ever-growing Routeburn River on various kinds of bridges.  At one point we saw a group of canyoneers jumping 30 feet down into the water of a tributary of the main river.

Then at the very end we were treated with a final river crossing where we spotted two endangered Blue Ducks just downstream.  While waiting for our bus to pick us up we hung out and watched the Blue Ducks diving under the water to look for food.  Pretty neat.  Those Blue Ducks were like the Routeburn Track’s final, parting gift to us on what turned out to be a magical few days in the mountains together.