Photo Essay: Hiking the Andes with Mountain Lodges of Peru

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Passing through two national parks—Mount Aspiring National Park and Routeburn National Park—the Routeburn Track crosses the main mountain divide that runs down the South Island, offering spectacular alpine scenery of rows of snow-capped peaks and steeply scoured mountain valleys.

Below the bush line, the track passes through thick rainforest. Looking up you'll see the beech trees that form the canopy. At ground level, you'll see dozens of species of ferns, mosses, and vines (and dozens of shades of green), all fed by the copious precipitation that falls on this rainforest.

Even with the booking system, crowds can be a problem on the Routeburn in the summer, but most trekkers find the scenery worth that small price.