Day 107: Not All American Bars Are Like This
January 25, 2020
Kilometers: 2634.3-2668.5
Macetown to Frankton Motor Camp
I was awake at 6:30 and surprised to see it wasn’t raining. Excited, I packed my gear together and got ready to leave. Team Belgium was up at the same time and we were all off together by 7:10.
Although it wasn’t raining, it was dark and looked like storms were on the way. I wasn’t all that worried because I knew we were quite close to civilization.
We walked along the river bed for a few kms. This led to a 4WD track. The water was colder than the day before because of how early it was.
We had one actual climb today to get us out of the mountains and into an area where real people live. It was a 400 meter climb but was easier than any of the climbs yesterday. We slowly made our way up Big Hill. Whoever named it was a clever one.
At the top we celebrated. This section has been called the third hardest section on the whole trail and we completed it in way less than three days. I ate a snickers bar as we could see rain falling from behind us, where we had come from (second picture below).
Joggers were running up to the saddle where we were sitting. It was definitely an impressive jog from arrowtown to where we were.
We made our way down towards arrowtown. It was about 5kms but at a perfect down-sloping angle so we got there quick. The first business we saw was the bakery and cafe. I ordered the classic Kiwi breakfast.
We sat in the restaurant for over two hours. Most of my time was spent trying to find a place in queenstown that wasn’t gonna break the bank. Unfortunately, I found nothing.
We continued walking in that direction knowing we’d figure something out. From Arrowtown the trail took us through a golf course. Immediately we passed a couple that told us about a motor park about 8kms outside of downtown queenstown right on the trail. I called them and we got a three person cabin for less than half the price than anything in queenstown.
We had a ways to walk from there but were happy to know where we were staying for the night. We then walked around lake Hayes.
The lake Hayes walkway took us to the shot over river walkway. Apparently the river is one of the most gold rich rivers in the world. It’s also a big destination for tourists as we saw many people tubing and jet boating down it.
With mountains everywhere, apparently straight through the river valley is the best place to land an airplane. We listened to countless airplanes fly over us.
At this point in the day Charlie and I were walking up front together. We were stopped by search and rescue members. They were looking for a teenager and asked where we’d come from and if we’d seen the man they were looking for. Unfortunately, we were unable to help them. They told us to call the police if they saw the man they were looking for, hopefully everything ended well. We crossed the river one last time and were in the outskirts of queenstown.
We made our way to a plaza. I walked into the electronics store and asked the guy for a charging cord that wouldn’t break for the next three weeks. My latest stopped working last night. I’m in a vicious cycle of cheap phone accessories that immediately break and i’m left needing another.
After the electronics store we went into the grocery store to buy a few necessities. We got beer, popsicles and I got a smoothie for the morning. We continued walking the final two kms to the motor park.
The motor park was right on lake Wakatipu, the same lake queenstown is located on. We dropped our stuff in the cabin and hit the lake for a swim. There were a bunch of people on the beach and the water was warm. After a bit we headed back to the cabin to shower, had a few beers and then ubered into downtown queenstown.
The city was hopping, there were many tourists there enjoying the sunny afternoon. We sat down at outdoor bar. My friend from JMU, Emily, met us at the bar. She has been in NZ for a couple weeks after a peace corps mission in Lesotho for 27 months. We planned to meet in queenstown a few days ago. After another beer we all went to the beach to see the view and then to get burgers for dinner.
After dinner we spent the night hopping from bar to bar in queenstown. We especially like the Cowboy bar, which was an American themed one. Team Belgium was a bit culture shook from the country music and the mechanical bull. We also liked the $4 jager bombs at Vinyl Underground, which was a fun nightclub. Queenstown is definitely a fun city and we really enjoyed our night out.
