Greenstone to Queenstown to shower!

January 25th

Greenstone Hut to Queenstown

Distance: 12km plus an 80-km bus ride

Elevation: flat

Steps: 22,200

Woke up to a beautiful morning, went out to the (flushing!!) toilet at Greenstone Hut, and a toutouwai (robin) was there to greet me. I think it was hoping the human would bring with it some sandflies to eat, but they (the sandflies) had not yet found me, so the toutouwai went away a little bit disappointed.

We then had a leisurely walk to the pickup point. This is a break in the trail; there is no safe way to get on foot from the carpark at the Greenstone Walkway trailhead to Queenstown, so even the official Te Araroa trail notes describe getting a bus (or other sort of ride) those 80 km. It is mainly a narrow dirt road, and walking it would truly be dangerous, especially given the way some of the tourism operators drive that road!

The trail from the hut to the trailhead was absolutely lovely, and is strongly recommended by both of us to anyone wanting to see if they might like hiking. It's 12km of pretty easy track, no mud or rivers to cross, and the track is well marked and maintained. Then you get to stay at the Greenstone Hut, so you don't even need a tent, just your sleeping bag and food! And, to be honest, if that's what we were doing, we would definitely take some wine :D

There are a few footbridges to cross, but the 'smallest' of these is a 5-person limit, the others are rated for at least 1.5 tonne (yes, apparently they want to get a digger in there every once in a while, I guess for track maintenance?).

Each of those bridges are at a waterfall. These are very pretty, and worth stopping for, even though they are no Multnomah Falls:

Still not Multnomah Falls:

Closer, but still not quite there:

Also, we have been walking through Ngai Tahu land over the past few days, and while this land has only recently been returned to Ngai Tahu kaitiakitanga (guardianship), the iwi has generously gifted use of these lands back to all New Zealanders and visitors, to enjoy the views and landscapes:

And we got to the pickup point early so had a gorgeous lunch spot:

And then the drama began. The van driver who came out to pick up the other two TA walkers today had no record of our booking. He was not expecting us at all. Luckily, the other two said something to the driver so he didn't drive away with out us! He generously let us into the van anyway, and said once we got into mobile phone reception, we could call the office to sort it out. Also to confirm whether there would be room on the bus for us between Glenorchy and Queenstown (depending on how many of the people he was picking up at various points on the way were offloading in Glenorchy or not).

  

The driver (unnamed because we never asked and he never offered) actually dropped us and the other two TA hikers off at a bridge so he could race up a different dirt road to pick up 3 people coming off of another track. As he put it, "I can go faster without any of you in the van," and while Eliza had been doing all right with the windy dirt road to that point, she was more than happy to not test her car-sick-prone stomach any more than necessary. And the other TA walkers were very happy to get out of the manically driven van for a bit, too!

While the driver was away on his side mission, Vaughan got a hold of the office. Turns out they, due to staffing issues, have effectively a different person in the office each day. And the person who had received Vaughan's email on Friday, informing of a date change to our booking, had marked the email as 'completed' but hadn't actually updated the booking. Oops!

But luckily, there was plenty of room in the Glenorchy-Queenstown van for us, so no harm no foul in the end.

And the driver for that leg, Peter, turned out to be very knowledgeable (or very good at making up facts) about the Lord of the Rings filmsites, so we got an unofficial tour of the area to boot.

We are now sitting in a hostel in Queenstown, where they are so used to stinky hikers coming off various trails, they have a laundry service, with about a 1-hour turnaround:

Once we get our clothes back (yes, nearly everything went in the hamper, keeping back just enough for Eliza to slip down to reception and back), we'll get dinner (craving kebabs).

Update: success

Tomorrow is right back on the trail, heading for Arrowtown.