Start of the Trip - CollingwoodKaramea - Heaphy TrackRolling River, WangapekaMurchison, New ZealandLewis passArthurs PassRakaia RiverLake Clearwater, New ZealandLake Ohau, New ZealandWanaka, New ZealandArrowtown, New ZealandTe Anau, New ZealandTuatapere, New ZealandTe Waewae Bay
 | walk4kiwis |  | A long walk to Save the Kiwis |  | Te Anau, New Zealand |
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Mar 18 2010, 04:20 PM
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Te Anau, New Zealand
Even the locals were complaining. Saturday the 13th was the day of the Motatapu Challenge, a bike race through the valley from Wanaka to Arrowtown and, for the first time, a run across the track that Dave and I had just walked. The runners had to be in teams of 2, carry locater beacons and be at certain places by certain times. I am sure there would have been snow up on the track but up to now I haven’t heard of any results but intend doing that today. Marilyn arrived back in Queenstown on Saturday afternoon as did my 3 walking companions for this leg. Colin, an old friend from Auckland who now lives in Milton, (yes, people still do live in Milton) and Willie and Rob from Auckland, who had made contact with me through the FOF website before I started this trek. After meeting up on Saturday evening the consensus was to start south of Kinloch on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and go up the Greenstone Valley as opposed to driving the 4 hours around to the Divide on the Milford Rd and walking down the valley. This was still well north of where we finished off last week so it wasn’t a problem. We set off on Sunday morning for one of the most beautiful drives in NZ, around Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. Stunning views of Mt Earnslaw and across the Lake towards the Greenstone Valley and Elfin Bay. Stopped off in Glenorchy for a coffee and was amazed at how much this place has grown over the years. This is one of my favourite places in the country and when I think I nearly bought a 3 bedroom house here 22 years ago for $75,000 !! It was far too expensive, this place was never going to change! We started walking along the Kinloch-Greenstone Rd about noon and up the valley a couple of hours later, leaving Marilyn to bounce back down the badly corrugated road in the Mothership and meet us at the Mavora lakes on Tuesday.
This is a valley I have walked up and down nearly a hundred times and it was as magic as ever! I was the head guide on this track when Greenstone Valley Walks started in 1985 and, for those who don’t know, was where I first met Marilyn. Needless to say it really was a trip down memory lane. It was also the first decent bit of bush I had walked through for some weeks after the dry, barren Canterbury and Otago high country. I loved it! In the first few hundred meters I got reacquainted with the bellbirds, robins and rifleman and so enjoyed the walk along the crystal clear river.
The track is so well maintained and even some of the smaller side creeks are now bridged, meaning that even in wet weather, you can get to the first hut without getting your feet wet!
The Greenstone Hut was relocated from the Greenstone Valley some years ago and now sits on a lovely sub-alpine clearing on the banks of the Sly Burn A very comfortable and spacious hut, with 20 bunks and a permanent hut warden in residence. Can anyone please explain to me why DoC doesn’t employ NZers for these positions any more? Have come across 2 hut wardens in my travels now, one German and one Japenese. Wasn’t like it in my day!! About 10 other people in the hut that night, the most crowded hut I have stayed in since the Heaphy nearly 10 weeks ago. The walk from there over into the Mavora Valley is a doddle. In fact this section was by far the easiest bit of track walking I have come across on the whole trek.
The Mavora valley itself is fantastic. A typical glacial valley with huge river terraces and moraine hillocks along the length of it. Our original plan was just to walk to the first hut for the next day, but as the weather was so good and the going so easy we decided to carry on another 4 hours to the Boundary Hut and give ourselves an easy walk out the following day.
The huts through here are very comfortable although fairly small, only 4 bunks in each one. Looking through the hut book I was surprised to see that few people actually use this track. It really is an easy and enjoyable walk to do.
The only downside is the valley is now open to 4 wheel drive vehicles up to the Boundary hut and wide sections of it are getting pretty badly churned up. A real pity I feel. Tuesday dawned very overcast and dull and true to the forecast, by mid morning the heavens opened and stayed open till mid afternoon. No trip through this part of the country would be complete without at least one day’s rain! We got to the road end in good time and as we had 40 odd kilometers of road to cover to the highway we carried on as we were wet anyway and still had a couple of hours before Marilyn was due to pick us up. We covered about 9 k’s before the Mothership hove into view and then backtracked to the Mavora Lake DoC run camping ground which is wonderfully situated at the end of the lake and has great facilities. As usual, within a few minutes of stopping Marilyn had the scones in the oven and all was well with the world. This type of camping really is roughing it smoothly! It got bitterly cold overnight and sure enough, come morning we could see the mountains around us covered with snow. With 30 odd k’s of road still to cover we set off fairly early and went for it. It was great having Marilyn drive ahead and stop every 8-10 k’s to wait for us to catch up and refuel us with hot drinks and food. Like I said, roughing it smoothly! It was bloody cold though and it was close to 2pm before it warmed up enough to shed at least one layer of clothes. We knocked off the distance by 3.30pm, which considering the number of long relaxed stops we had wasn’t too bad I thought.
Which brings us to Te Anau, were we dropped off Colin to catch the bus back to Milton (yes, some buses still go through Milton) and Rob and Willie to carry on to do the Dusky Track. This was the route I was going to take to the south coast but for a number of reasons I am going to finish the last stretch on country roads. Reason 1 is my Dad is not too good and has been in and out of hospital recently and although he insists he is Ok, I would like to get home and say hello. Reason 2 is that the weather forecast for early next week isn’t too flash and having down the Dusky once in chest deep water, I ‘m not in a hurry to repeat the experience. The third and most important reason is that I am just plain bloody knackered! The last day’s walking in boots down the Mavora really stuffed my feet and parts of my body that up ‘til now have been fine are starting to twinge and groan. But don’t worry, if I have to finish walking on my hands I WILL FINISH!!
Will touch base again soon. Take care and keep smiling.
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