Day 18 Arrowtown to Macetown, 13km, 3 hours 30 minutes

I really quick easy day for me today. To be honest it's felt like as much of a holiday day as a tramping day.

I eschewed the official trail over a hill to take the easy way up the Arrow River. It's pretty spectacular country, and with easy walking was another sandal day.

You may have noticed I haven't taken those photos myself. That's because I walked the first half of the day with my friends Hamish and Janine (and somewhat reluctant kids.... ah, memories of home!) for the first half of the day, before Hamish and kids turned for home, Janine accompanying me through to Macetown as training for a Rogaine.








Today was the first day tramping with the new pack. A successful day - it definitely takes more load from my shoulders onto my waist than the old pack. The real test will be the next couple of days though.

From Macetown I could have pushed another 5 hours on to the first of the Motatapu huts, but decided to take it easy, with a view to a big next 2 days instead. I've heard good things about Macetown and liked the look of it, so decided to pitch tent here for the night, within a couple of meters of the bubbling Arrow River (don't worry Karen, I'm also at least a meter above it). It once supported 300 gold and quartz miners, and there are many relics of its past, some restored.


There followed a leisurely day of reading and movie watching, interspersed with many trips to the thigh high river for a dip. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, which assuaged my guilt somewhat in not walking the afternoon.

I have Macetown all to myself, the first time I have been on my own since the walk started, and I'm now approaching a third of the way through. I was feeling pretty lonely in my tent, I guess having just come from family life with Hamish and Janine's family for the past couple of days doesn't help in this respect, but nevertheless am enjoying my own company well enough. Thoughts of home sweet home sustain me.

I'd heard horrendous things about the sandflies at Macetown. There were a few, of the type that really hurt when they bite, but nothing unmanageable.... until dusk that is, when legions appeared, with me as their only target. I had to break off chatting with a SOBO who has done the whole country in little more than 2 months, to cloister myself off in my tent, where fortunately I am untouchable. The sound of them landing on my fly at one stage had me convinced that the forecast rain was in the offing. If nothing else it teaches good bladder control - each foray out of the tent is accompanied by several minutes of sandfly assassinations when I get back in the tent.

Day 17 - Queenstown to Arrowtown, 28.5km, 6 hours 30 minutes

The Kawarau River.  This was the first major waterway on trail I didn't swim in - it was just too swift!

With an easy, if longish, day in prospect, I rocked my sock and sandal ensemble.  Janine assured me, while out of place in downtown Queenstown, I would feel right at home wearing this in the more artsy environs of Arrowtown. My last minute sandal purchase, prompted by Karen, has proved a boon, and been used for probably 25% of my kilometers walked so far - all the easy stuff.

To summarize the day - a fascinating days walking, by turns beautiful and interesting.

Hamish dropped me off in his way to work in the Queenstown CBD. In the process of making my way to the lake front to get on the TA route, I banged into Neil who had just grabbed himself a coffee before starting the same route I was walking later in the day. It seems we can't get away from each other! No bad thing, it's great spending time with him on the track.

There followed a beautiful walk along the lake to Frankton, before stopping for a morning tea coffee at a boat shed Cafe in Frankton.

Walking around the airport wasn't exactly the quietest part of the trail.  Helicopters and planes were taking off at least once a minute, the sounds bouncing back off nearby Kelvin Heights and the Remarkables to form quite the sensory experience.


After a small diversion past the recycling center I realised I was going the wrong way and doubled back.  Never mind, once on the correct path I got a good view of the poo ponds, so had the dubious pleasure of taking in the Queenstown dump and sewage works in the space of 5 minutes.

The official trail crosses the Shotover on an historic bridge, but I didn't bother, knowing the river was fordable from the night before.


The trail to Arrowtown follows a joint biking/walking track. I got quite used to being buzzed by eBikes throughout my mornings work. They're always easy to tell, they go flying past with not nearly enough revolutions on the pedals to support such a speed.

Queenstown still seems to be a hive of building activity, similar to the Christchurch CBD in many ways, especially on the outskirts around Frankton.

One such subdivision under construction took me to a beautiful shaded walk along the Karawau, albeit with the constant thrum of jet boats plying the river.  That, along with the deceptively swift current, was enough to postpone thoughts of a swim, instead deciding to wait a couple of kilometers for Lake Hayes.



Before reaching the lake itself there was a bit of a quirky subdivision to negotiate.

There were some interesting legal themed street names:
Dispute Way.
Judge and Jury Drive.


It put me to mind of a town I had visited in New Mexico once called, "Truth Or Consequences". They had changed their name to that of a radio game show for some bizarre reason.  Despite (or perhaps because of) its name, it wasn't a town of much consequence.  I guess at least they still had the truth to fall back on.

And so to Lake Hayes.  This had once been part of the Frankton arm of Lake Wakatipu, but had been cut off as material was dumped by the Shotover River, one of the largest load bearing rivers in the world. This created a lake that is very shallow at the Queenstown end. . Disappointingly it didn't look at all good for swimming, almost a toxic bloom yellow colour.



Fortunately the far end dives off to a decent depth and was excellent for a bit of R&R and swimming.

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I had a bit of a giggle at their kowhai planting program. I love kowhai, they're one of my favourite trees. However the sign they had erected promoting the "celebrating and cherishing" of these trees was rather unfortunately located directly in front of a dead copse of them (as an aside, should the plurality for a collection of dead trees be a corpse of trees?).

Never mind, at least they have possibly the world's best letterbox.


The day ended in interesting fashion, with a walk through Millbrook, one of New Zealand's premier golf resorts. I stopped here for a late lunch of a pastrami roll, fries and a beer overlooking a Sawgrass 17th style island green.  It made for entertaining stuff with more drops than Karen when she's getting over surgery (she's forever breaking stuff in the week after she's had anesthetic).

However the beer went straight to my legs and made for a tiring last couple of kilometers into Arrowtown. A dip in the Arrow River at the finish was a very welcome pick me up.

Finally, it may still be the height of summer, but Arrowtown is already starting to show some of its stunning Autumn colour.

Tomorrow I'm into the hills for a couple of days on my way to Wanaka.

Hiatus 2 - Queenstown

2 days spent in Queenstown, largely chilling.

Day 1 started with Eli and Stephen taking off early.  I was really sad to see Eli go, feeling quite homesick after his departure.  It turns out he had a puke in Hamish's car on the way to the bus pickup. Sorry Hamish!!! Perhaps a liquid breakfast (smoothie, not beer!) wasn't a great idea.
The only thing of note I had to do in town was replace my pack, which was done on day 1, a Tatonka Yukon 80 liter pack. I'm really happy with it - heaps of room with a fantastic waist belt. Without even walking I can feel more of the weight going onto my waist than my old pack.
Day 1 also consisted in a fair bit of swimming in Lake Wakatipu, and perhaps another burger and some sorbet.

Day 2 was spent not doing much, loading and setting up my pack. After dinner we toodled down to the Shotover River. It looked pretty low, so I waded on in. Actually waded isn't the word - I got across the other side with barely more than my knees getting wet. I'm sure it's not often possible to ford the Shotover!

Again, thanks to Hamish and Janine for having me!

Day 16 - Taipo Hut to Lake Wakatipu > Queenstown, 24km, 7 hours 13 minutes

Eli & I enjoying a view of the magnificent Greenstone River

With a biggish day ahead of us, it was another's relatively early morning. We awoke to find snow to low levels, not far above the hut.



The day started with a traverse to a saddle that would drop us down into the Greenstone Valley. We had two routes to choose between, a high one and a low one. Generally when faced with such a choice it's a good idea to pick one then stick to it. We prevaricated between whichever route was looking easiest at the time (the two were only separated by a couple of hundred meters) and so ended up zig-zagging all over the saddle. I'm pretty sure on the GPS breadcrumb trail we'll look drunk.



In any case, we eventually settled on the high route, which took us away from the bog of the lower route, and into some lovely forest as we dropped down Pass Burn towards the Greenstone Valley.



We entered the Greenstone Valley at a magnificent intersection of 3 valleys, not far from the Greenstone Hut.




And so to the hut itself where we had an early lunch. It's a 20 bunker of great walk quality, and a permanent DOC warden in attendance.


The afternoon was a pretty easy burn following the Greenstone River to Lake Wakatipu. Stephen's feet were really suffering again, so he and Eli took to running it.


We were about half way out when we ran into my friends, Hamish and Janine, who had kindly offered to pick us up from the trail head, and even more kindly have been putting me up (or is that, putting up with me?) for the past few days.


A swim in the chilly Greenstone River, a coffee and a beer on the way to Glenorchy, then a burger in Queenstown rounded out an excellent section of walking.

Thanks to Stephen & Eli for coming along, and Hamish and Janine for their hospitality.

Having Stephen and Eli has really helped on this difficult leg, but to be honest it's still difficult to believe that Caleb isn't around to enjoy it with us.

Day 15 - Carey's Hut to Taipo Hut, 18.3km, 5 hours 30 minutes

Looking up the Mararoa Valley, with the Greenstone Valley at the far end.

We awoke to a squally day, a weather pattern that would endure throughout the day. Eli had lost some billtong to the mice in the night, but not enough to stop him continuing to eat it today.

There was a short early climb before arriving onto flats above the lake. This didn't last for long before we bid farewell to the beautiful Lakes Mavora with a Caleb pose.

The route then opened out into a stunning river valley, the Mararoa, which we followed for the rest of the day. We quickly happened upon a hut which we stopped at for morning tea.

Continuing on, the valley opened out into one of those huge, wide, glacier carved valley's that this part of the country is well known for, similar in many ways to the better known Matukituki valley.

Stephen's feet have been going better today, and Eli hasn't experienced any ill affects at all.


... and so to Taipo Hut. There's a really good swimming hole here, but with the weather I'm not enthused to use it, alas.



The hut is bang on the 300km mark, so another milestone, and now only a 1000km to go!

Once in the hut I noticed that my pack had suffered another breakage, this one more serious, with the whole top of the internal frame breaking and coming away. It won't stop me getting to Queenstown tomorrow, but will probably mean an extra day in Queenstown while I get a suitable replacement.

Week 2 summary

6 walking days, 1 resting day, not counting a 4 night hiatus in Te Anau.
112km covered this week, much less than the previous week. A little less but actually pretty close to what I want to do longer term.

The Takitimus and Mavora Lakes were both exceedingly beautiful in different ways, and both had ample water, so the water issues are resolved.

I've still only had a need for 2 Voltaren this week, so my back continues to perform beyond expectations.

I'm still managing my feet carefully, but the blister issues of the first week have dissipated somewhat for now.

The next week sees the completion of the route to Queenstown, possibly as far as Wanaka.

Day 14 - Mavora Lakes campsite to Carey's Hut, 9.77km, 2 hours 30 minutes

A nice easy day today, probably the shortest of the whole trail, skoodling along the bank of North Mavora Lake to a hut at the far end of the lake.



The afternoon was spent between playing cards, swimming in the lake, and chatting to the other hut residents.



The hut is nice, in a rustic kind of way, with a complement of mice, and a fire plastered with a warning not to use it (not that there is any firewood available anyway)

Late in the day I had a pleasent surprise as Neil turned up, having caught up after a day longer in Te Anau. This left 7 in a 6 person hut, later augmented to 9 as two others turned up as well, so it will be a cozy night tonight. Stephen, Eli and myself are sharing 2 bunks.