23 February 2018

The Routeburn Track is a 32 km single direction trail that is considered one of the great multi-day hikes in New Zealand. We are not equipped for a multi-day hike but we wanted to experience some of it. We combined two popular sections of Routeburn, Key Summit Track and Lake Howden Track, into a 3 1/2 hour hike. The Key Summit Track provides stunning 360-degree views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The trail requires 3 hours and is rated as intermediate difficulty. The trail itself is kept in good condition, the only difficulty is the elevation. We extended the summit walk by taking the Routeburn Trail to Howden Lake and back. Again the trail is in great condition, the only challenge is the elevation change. Howden Lake is nice but there are many other equally nice lakes visible from your car window.

Key Summit

Howden Lake