The Mighty Motatapu Track

Wow, this track  was amazing, but first we walked around Lake Wanaka on a still and beautiful morning. We startled a group - a clutch? - of Californian Quails, and watched with great amusement as they tried to regroup while calling to each other "el guapo, el guapo" to warn of the danger we posed.
We arrived at Glendhu Bay to find the enterprising Laurel and Colin ensconced on deck chairs, with two more vacant beside them, and a gourmet lunch for us. What can you say?

We were so well fed we powered up to Fern Burn Hut in no time. I didn't even notice the tricky sidles with steep drop offs, but Rob didn't like them much.




The rain next morning made us lazy, but we finally got going up towards Jack Hall's Saddle, Matt and Seth our young American trail buddies passing us on the way. The descent was steepish and one section was along a narrow ridge with big drop offs - I noticed that all right! It was a huge surprise to turn a corner and see Highlander Hut - we were there by lunch time, and our trail buddies had our sleeping mats ready for us. The scenery was spectacular despite the rain - the hut is totally dwarfed by the surrounding mountain peaks.

Adverse comments in the hut book made us fearful of the coming track, but we loved it. It was hard with two huge climbs and descents and long sidles across very steep terrain, but by now we were fit and felt it was all okay. Of course those young lads passed us again on the second climb to Knuckle Peak - don't you love the name? - and we watched them disappear into the distance. We just sat and admired the views for a while in the sun, were rewarded with sightings of falcons, and finally descended to Rose's Hut way down below us in the Motatapu Valley.

Seth, Debby, Rob and Matt, Motatapu Track

Crossing the Arrow River

Next day, guess what? Yet another climb to Rose's Saddle at 1270 metres, but again we had stunning views and falcons to entertain us. Then it was down, down down all the way to the beautiful Arrow River. It was running high and bank to bank so we sidled on the wet weather track to avoid it, but then decided that was worse. Back to the river and we hoped there would be no swims. There turned out to be 60 - 70 river crossings but lots of  fun except for a tricky section through a gorge where we had to wade down the side of a rushing torrent. The river bed is a kaleidescope of green, gold, blue and white stones and we kept looking for nuggets of gold hiding amongst the stones. No luck on that score, but we did find other riches on the road down from historic Macetown - raspberries, blackberries, green gooseberries, black gooseberries and plums - all lusciously ripe. We ended up with purple hands and had to restrain ourselves from over-indulging. We met runners, cyclists, four-wheel drive cars and speeding motorbikes which was all a bit much after our lonely days in the mountains. The road we followed down into Arrowtown was a feat of engineering, perched on sheer sides reinforced with stone bastions high above the Arrow Gorge. We couldn't resist feasting on yummy fudge in pretty little Arrowtown, and dined out on Indian food at Mantra. Yobbos kept us awake all night which just served to remind us how much we like being away from it all up in the mountains!


Rob found a route through the backroads and alleyways of Arrowtown to get us back on our trail, which led us through Millbrook Estate with its astounding enormous houses and English village look. Slope Hill Road took us past more fascinating architecture, and we admired the restored Raceman's Cottage - more on that soon. Our next track took us across the historic Shotover Bridge, but then we found our next track closed for repairs! What to do? We had little option but to walk along the highway into Frankton where an angel stopped and picked us up. His name was Doug Henderson and he turned out to be the owner and restorer of the afore-mentioned Raceman's Cottage. He was on his way to get his stitches checked (mountain biking accident) in Frankton, but he insisted on taking us all the way to the Queenstown Gardens. How could we refuse? So we resumed our walk into Queenstown, did our chores, watched paragliders landing, then hit the road again. Lon the signwriter took us as far as Wilson's Bay, where we stood in the hot sun for an hour before another angel, Ed the architect picked us up. His son Zandy amused me with tales of Pig and Pigeon Islands and tree-planting, while Ed drove us all the way to the campground in Glenorchy. Of course Ed knew Doug - small world down here. By the way, in case you think we are cheating, we are allowed to get around Lake Wakatipu any way we can - we don't have to walk it, The Trail treats it like a mini Cook Strait.


Notes:

Day 53: Wanaka to Fern Burn Hut. 25 km
Day 54: Fern Burn Hut to Highland Creek Hut. 6 km
Day 55: Highland Creek Hut to Roses Hut. 11 km
Day 56: Roses Hut to Arrowtown Campground. 25 km
Day 57: Arrowtown to Frankton (Glenorchy campground). 16 km