Week 30- Back to Queenstown

I walked to catch the bus at 03:50 on Monday 5th of February. I didn’t quite have enough money but the driver let me on anyway. I went through security twice and rang home before boarding the flight. I had a row to myself and slept the three-hour flight. Due to time difference, I arrived around midday, spent about 45min having my tent and boots cleaned (makes a change from doing it myself!) and caught the bus to town. As the Super Bowl was on I sat down to watch it in a bar and had some chips. It was one of the best games ever, allegedly, and the Eagles won. After the game I checked into a hostel, bought some gas, water treatment tabs and food for dinner. I couldn’t find the tin opener in the hostel so I took a knife to the tins. I ate my dinner with two Swedish girls who both used to ride horses, before retiring to bed.

Having slept for 11 hours I woke at about 09:30 with checkout at 10:00. I quickly sorted out my things and checked out, then made breakfast. I was doing some writing and then by about 12:30 I decided I was going to do a hike. I went and got a map and food for four days before heading onto the road to hitchhike to the trail head with a plan to do the Greenstone/Caples loop. I got a lift within 10min part way along Lake Wakatipu with a Belgian and French girl and then two minutes later I was picked up by two Texans in a land rover. They were both in event management and brought me to Glenorchy. They were having some food, invited me to join them and bought me some chips, they then dropped me to Kinlock (20min away) to boot! At this stage it was between 16:00 and 16:30 and I started walking the 13km to the trail head, hoping to get a lift. Plenty of cars passed in the wrong direction and two motorbikes passed in the correct direction so I wasn’t able to hitchhike. It was a pleasant walk along the lake anyway. I arrived about two hours later, ate dinner with two Americans and two men who were walking the Te Araroa Trail. Shortly before bed I heard two gun shots and then a few minutes later a man appeared down one of the slopes with a dead dear on this shoulders. I fell asleep under the stars but woke cold during the night and had to close the tent.

I woke around 07:00, as the sun began to fill the valley, had breakfast and set off on my way. At first my plan was to do the Caples to Greenstone loop but then I decided I’d go up the Caples and onto the Routeburn, which is a Great Walk. I walked about 2.5 hours through forestry and farmland along the valley floor until I reached the first hut and stopped for lunch. Looking at the map I thought I would go to Steele Creek, cut in there and camp for the night.

Two hours later I arrived and turned right into Kay Creek, crossed a river over a dodgy bridge and found a clearing with two people. I went for a swim before we threw the frisbee, had a sing song, discussed words beginning with B and also what we would make rain. I would have camped here but the sand flies were terrible so I decided to head for the saddle. Just shy of an hour later I met some guys coming down who said I was an hour from the top. At the next stream I stopped and cooked dinner. I contemplated just hanging up my hammock but after the previous night I decided it’d be too cold. My next decision was that at 20:00 I would set up camp regardless. I finished the two-hour ascent by 19:40, climbed off the track and set up camp at about 950m. I was completely wrecked and passed out by 21:00.

I didn’t wake for 11 hours as I was so tired and thankfully I wore all my clothes so the 5°C temperature didn’t bother me overnight. I watched the sun rise, had a leisurely breakfast, wrote while I let the sun dry the dew before I set off down the saddle. It was quite steep and took about an hour so I was glad I didn’t do it the other way. After some slightly muddier pathway and another hour I reached Howden hut which is the first hut on the Great Walk. Due to my slow start I had lunch here before setting off for Lake Mackenzie.

The first hour and a half was an uphill battle but I was rewarded when I reached a 174m waterfall. I had to swim. Feeling refreshed, I ploughed on taking in the stunning vistas below. The descent continued for an hour until I reached Mackenzie hut. I took a quick water break and then started walking along the lake to find a camping spot. The first part was a DOC path and then I went bush wacking until I reached the river delta. I wandered around the corner so I couldn’t be seen and found the most idyllic spot. I had a quick swim in the glacial lake before making dinner and setting up camp on a mossy patch by the stream.

I slept until about 07:30, apart from being woken at 03:30 to a bird having a go at one of the lines on my tent! It took just over an hour to get ready to go. I began with some more bush wacking and managed to lose my sunglasses in the process. Once I’d topped up my water by the hut I began my climb to the saddle at 1300m. The first hour was up hill, steep too, and then the second hour was more level. I realised on my way up that my secret camping spot was not so secret after all and I was in full view the night before.

Once I reached the saddle I dumped my pack and then motored up to 1500m to see the sea. The view was somewhat spoiled by the clouds but it was great anyway. I met an American father and daughter and a girl from Dunedin who I would play cat and mouse with for the rest of the day. I ate my lunch in the shelter with two Australians before heading down the other side for 45min to fill my bottle at the next hut. The rest of the afternoon was a downhill track. I was just glad I didn’t do the track in reverse. A further 30min brought me to the final hut and then the last 1.5 hours was mostly flat, following the gorgeous emerald river down. I met four American tourists on the way and chatted for a while. Once at the carpark I had to ask which way it was to Queenstown! I hitched a ride with a local chess enthusiast whose father fixed motorcycles and then my American friends brought me from Glenorchy to a campsite just out of Queenstown. I went for a swim in the lake before cooking my dinner with six travellers from Auckland who were impressed by my resourcefulness. I managed to send a few messages and finished my Agatha Christie book before sleep took over.

I woke shortly after 07:00, had my breakfast and walked up the road to hitchhike into Queenstown. I was picked up by two French-Canadians. I then rang home to wish dad a happy birthday as it was still the 9th at home. And to speak to everyone else. I gave my book to a charity shop and bought a book by A.A Milne called The Red House Mystery. My friend and classmate, Shane, had arrived from Ireland and I was due to meet with him at 14:00 so I spent some time planning in the DOC office before I sat in a backpackers, writing and charging my phone until he arrived. We grabbed a bite to eat with Paul, a carpenter from Devon, who Shane went bungee jumping with. After a couple of hours of catch- up we went to meet Ben who is a friend of Shane’s and someone I played hockey against in school. He gave us some free ice cream from his shop before Shane, Paul and I went to play disc golf. I used my Ultimate disc and they both hired a proper disc. Thankfully, they were both awful so it didn’t make the fact I wasn’t using the right disc too obvious. Paul then left us and we met Ben and his friend again, grabbed food from the supermarket and then sat by the lake front discussing if it would be morally right to give a seagull chicken and if a sealion was actually a potato. There was no room at the backpackers so I caught two lifts out of Queenstown, one from an Aussie from Darwin who had just won $4500 at the casino. I hiked up a path into the woods for about 30min to reach Sam Summers Hutt where I would spend the night as I was expecting rain. I ended up walking in the dark as it was about 22:30 but I really feel for the guy who I woke up trying to get in. The hut is a stone hut with a tin roof built during the gold rush almost 100 years ago.

I didn’t feel amazingly clean waking up but at least I was dry. The rain actually only started as I was finishing breakfast and wasn’t that heavy. I did some more planning before starting my new book. I read it cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed it (there were some interruptions at constant intervals as walkers with amazed to see someone in the hut! I chatted to an elderly French couple for a while.) Eventually when the rain subsided I finished my tuna pasta for lunch and walked back to the road. A Short while later I got a lift from two Swiss and a German but I had to discard my beloved stick. That stick had become a constant in my life. It brought the list of my lost possessions to one t-shirt, one boxers, one togs, one sunglasses and one stick. Once back in Queenstown I saw all the shops were shut so I sat in the backpackers once more, booked some flights and spoke with friends. I also lost a game of pool to a man called Stan. Hitching to the campsite I was collected by a 17 year-old couple (Kiwi-French and German). They were road tripping together but she was into horse riding so we had plenty to talk about. At the campsite entrance I was asked for payment for the first time. I announced I was hiking out and then the guy told me to stay for free!

You can see all the photos from Queenstown here.