Routeburn Track
At 32 km it's the shortest Great Walk on paper, but it packs an alpine saddle crossing and two separate trailheads into that distance — which changes the trip-planning maths more than the length suggests.
- Distance
- 32 km
- Days
- 2–4
- Huts
- 3
Two trailheads, not one loop
The Routeburn runs between the Routeburn Shelter near Glenorchy (a short drive from Queenstown) and The Divide on the Milford Road near Te Anau. Unlike Kepler, there's no way to start and finish in the same place — you either need a car relocation, or (far more common) a shuttle booking with an operator like Tracknet or Info&Track running services from both Queenstown and Te Anau to each end. Sort this before you book huts, not after: shuttle seats on the exact dates you want can be its own small bottleneck.
The three huts
- Routeburn Flats Hut — the shortest first day, a gentle valley walk from the Routeburn Shelter end.
- Routeburn Falls Hut — perched above the valley by the falls, and the base for the Harris Saddle crossing.
- Lake Mackenzie Hut — on the Divide side of the saddle, beside its namesake lake.
Harris Saddle and Lake Harris
The high point of the walk crosses Harris Saddle past alpine Lake Harris, with the option (weather permitting) of a side trip up Conical Hill for a view down to Lake Wakatipu and the Hollyford Valley on the far side. Like Milford's Mackinnon Pass, this is an exposed alpine section that a hut warden can advise against crossing in poor weather.
Why it's so hard to book
The Routeburn's short length makes it genuinely achievable as a long weekend from Queenstown, which puts it in direct competition with both serious trampers and first-timers for the same handful of bunks. Combined with Milford, it's one of the two Great Walks whose peak-season nights typically disappear within a day or two of the booking window opening — see the booking system guide for the exact staggered-opening mechanics.
Good to know: The Routeburn can be walked from either end, and some trampers combine it with the Greenstone or Caples tracks for a longer loop back to Glenorchy that avoids needing a second shuttle at all — worth researching if the Great Walks huts are booked out on your dates.