Kia ora! Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to have the MOST incredible family trip to New Zealand’s South Island, and I’m excited to share all the incredible adventures that we had along the way. Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be diving into everything you absolutely must have on your New Zealand bucket list. Read the previous blog post here. For a bit of context: my brother lives in NZ, so my mum and I travelled over for a family holiday with him. It was packed with hikes, swims, and endless mountain views. This trip marked my second time in this stunning country (after exploring the North Island in December 2022 with my Mum and Dad and brother), and I was beyond excited to come back. Trust me, there’s so much to see and do in New Zealand, I hope this blog helps inspire anyone looking to plan their own trip.

Oh my golly gosh, hiking the Routeburn track was EPIC!

The Routeburn was what I was most excited about for our trip to the South Island of New Zealand. It’s a 33km/20.5 miles track that runs through the mountains from The Divide in Fiordland National Park to Mount Aspiring National Park.

We split the great walk over two days, staying at McKenzie hut for the night at the – almost – midway point.


On day one the route took us over the Divide, up to the fabulous views at Key Summit, ending at Lake McKenzie. This day was just over 16km and had over 800 meters of vert.

The views at Key Summit were incredible! Most of day one was hiking in the bush, so it was great to have the incredible Mountain views here.

Key Summit was early on in the day, but we were excited to have a glimpse into the unbelievable mountain scenery that we would be experiencing over the next couple of days.

The Earland Falls waterfall was also a welcome surprise (partly because I forgot what to expect on day one as I most excited for day two). The Falls were a great opportunity to fill up our water bottles and splash our faces with some cold and fresh water.

As you can see form the photo, Earland Falls are pretty epic – it is over 170 meters tall.

After hiking through the bush for a few hours, we were excited to emerge at the glorious mountain lake of Lake McKenzie.

The swim after a long day of walking was so refreshing, and it was surprisingly warm towards the middle of the lake. A perfect way to end a great day of hiking!

This was my first time ever staying in a hut. I have to admit I’ve never stayed in a bothy either! I quite enjoyed it. Having been able to book a hut meant that all I needed to carry was a sleeping bag for the night, massively lightening the weight of our packs. We also got to use a communal hut area for cooking and chilling in the evening, which was inside and away from insects.

Rich also kindly let me borrow his PLB to send via satellite a short Happy Anniversary message to Will as we had no signal at all on the track (which I kinda loved) before we all went off to bed.

I really enjoyed the ‘hut life’ experience, and I am definitely on the lookout for more walks that offer a hut just so that the pack weight can stay somewhat light, but you can still get a hearty adventure in and feel like you are in a more ‘remote’ place. Any recommendations, please do let me know!

On day two, the adventures continued.

Shortly after some porridge, we said goodbye to the hut and the lake, feeling a little smug that we were seizing the day before many others were awake.

After feeling the heat A LOT on day one, we set off early in the morning to get up to Harris Saddle before it got too hot, which then made the rest of the walk an enjoyable downhill ramble.

The route heads up over Harris Saddle, down to Routeburn Falls, ending at Forge Flat. This felt like a huge day, hiking 22km with almost 900 meters of vert!

Even though the legs felt sore afterwards, this was deffo my favourite day of the Routeburn — just look at those views! The whole way up to Harris Saddle and around Harris lake, the views were something else! I’m not sure I’ll ever see views like that again. INCREDIBLE!

We also enjoyed walking past Routeburn Falls waterfall, which we followed down to the Falls hut where we had a much welcomed lunch stop.

Finally, we ended the Routeburn track with a swim at Forge Flat. It was so ideal for cooling off very hot feet for the last 4km out. T’was right chilly though!

And of course, we took the obligatory selfie to mark the end of our awesome adventure!

Three very happy hikers.

To anyone debating walking the Routeburn track, I would say do it. We had an awesome time and were spoilt by the views and the weather, I will certainly be looking at doing another Great Walk next time we visit New Zealand.

From the end of the track we drove back to a hostel in Queenstown where we had the most delicious Indian takeaway from Arrowtown before crashing out for a lonnggg sleep.

The next day, after a hearty breakfast, we touristed around Queenstown and Arrowtown and fully made the most of having a bit of a rest and touristy day!

From Queenstown, we headed back to Wanaka. Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post to find out what we got up there!