← PreviousDiscovering Dunedin: a fire, mishaps and laughs on a slopeWe started the next day fairly early with a good hike in Arrowtown. After 45 minutes of steep climbing, the path took us to the top of the Tobins Track. The view was a fine reward, and we had a friendly chat with an Australian couple enjoying the spot. We then headed back down for a pizza in one of the little town's many restaurants. Afterwards we walked around Lake Hayes, chatting quietly and fooling around as usual.
We checked into our hostel for the night, and after a run along Lake Wakatipu we made the most of the internet and went to bed early because we had to get up at dawn the next day. That cursed alarm went off at 7 again, but as we'd packed everything the night before, we were in the car fifteen minutes later. An hour and a half separated us from the start of our hike, and we were about to tackle a big one. The Routeburn Track is one of New Zealand's Great Walks and a tramping route, meaning it takes several days to do in full.
Not having the gear to sleep in the huts, we'd decided to climb to the highest point, sixteen kilometres in, and then come back down. We allowed eight hours. The first part was in forest on a gentle slope. We walked under the trees for almost two hours. It was a little cool, the ideal temperature for walking without sweating buckets. The path wound along a river and sometimes offered spectacular views. Eventually we came to a junction and our route started to climb seriously. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed. We reached the first hut and took the chance for a toilet break.
An Italian struck up a conversation with us and from then on became our climbing companion. We talked about our respective countries while taking in the breathtaking landscapes before us. After almost four hours of climbing, we finally reached the high hut. Lots of hikers were already in the chalet and we squeezed in to eat our sandwiches. A group of French people started chatting and we discovered one of the guys came from Brétigny. Either the world was very small or we all definitely went to the same places. We didn't hang around, and twenty minutes later we said goodbye to our new Italian friend and set off back the way we'd come.
The scenery was just as grand going the other way. We looked out over valleys surrounded by majestic mountains. The descent was harder, though, as it really pounded the joints. Our knees started to hurt and Cassandre even ended up with huge blisters on the sides of both feet. We finished the route in 7.5 hours for 32 kilometres. The drive to Wanaka then felt long; there we settled into a gigantic Airbnb for an extremely well-earned rest. Wanaka is a town popular with New Zealanders, especially retirees, and its population was growing exponentially thanks to the wide variety of activities on offer, in winter as in summer.
We visited Puzzling World, a tiny amusement park centred on optical illusions where every corner made you think and gave our brains a hard time. Wanaka was also home to a very special cinema where you could sit in old cars or on salvaged sofas to watch the film. We opted for two very comfortable old armchairs in front of Molly's Game, a so-so film that left us remembering the quality of the cinema more than that of the movie.
After seeing plains, mountains, fjords and beaches, we had one thing left to see: Fox Glacier. Reputed to be the most accessible glacier in the world, it drew a thousand people a day, all there to get close or take photos from afar. We went for the second option, as the compulsory guided tours were too expensive for our travellers' budget. At the viewpoint, lots of people were admiring the beauty of the landscape, this white and blue glacier among green and grey mountains.
We got friendly with two French people, a father and his son, and ended up chatting with them for more than an hour. They were very convivial and we kept in touch, promising to meet again in France. We slept in an eight-bed dorm with young and not-so-young people. An American in his twenties was very excited because he'd just learned he'd got a scholarship and would have twenty thousand dollars less to pay. We of course smiled at the differences in lives and cultures between all the people lying in the beds of that same room.