Routeburn Track: Avalanches, Amazing Views And Ankle-strain

I survived! Oh yes... hike chick made it to the end of a 5 day hike! We have completed our second "Great Walk" (although the first was a canoe, so does that count?) and tagged on another 2-day track just for the fun (agony?) of it. Day 1 saw us walk up through beech forest up a big hill to the Routeburn Falls hut. At 1000m above sea level, this place was idyllic... looking out onto snow-capped peaks and down to the valley below (when the clouds cleared). Day 2 we were all set to go over the top of the Harris Saddle when disaster struck. The wardens closed the track as the avalanche risk was too great! 2 people had been caught up to their necks the day before. Arg! So we hung around for another night. Day 3 brought elation as we were allowed to continue on our adventure and we skipped up to the Harris Saddle, made sure we didn't stop through the avalanche zone and were rewarded with the most amazing scenery ever. Pete's going to set up an album of photos as there are just too many for one blog. That day we walked for about 6 hours (20km) to get to the Howden hut (where some Aussies rewarded us with some red wine) but the views on the way were so breathtaking I hardly felt the pain. We were asleep by 9 each night, happily dreaming of bright blue skies, crystal clear lakes and lots of snow. Day 4 saw the day of hell on the Caples... we had to walk through rivers (my boots are still not dry - putting them back on when they'd been outside all night and there was a morning frost was character-building, to say the least), climb an hour over tree-roots and rocks and then we walked about 4 hours through dark sunless forest over tree roots where we had to calculate every step. It was exhausting and I hated hiking by the time we reached the hut (it was like Blair Witch, honestly). My ankle still hurts. Not impressed. Anyway, day 5 redeemed the 2-day Caples track for us... with mist-filled cow-fields, lunch with some lovely ladies who put us to shame (one had had a double hip replacement!) and an encounter with a bull in the middle of the track (which was a bit hairy). Ah. We're back into hiking again now and have bought lovely thermals to help us tackle the Kepler track towards the end of next week (I look irresistible in mine and Pete's long-johns are stripey - imagine!) I should be stick thin after all this exercise but I'm not... we managed to take real food with us on the tramp and since returning to Queenstown we have once again eaten ourselves stupid. Lovely stuff. Happy Easter everyone!