From Macetown to Queenstown
Hiking time: 10:00a.m.-03:45p.m.
Daily/Total distance: 41km (17 hitched) /977km (247.5 hitched/skipped, 84 biked)
Steps: 31311
Weather: clear then cloudy

This morning I had planned to get up at 8am and leave by 9. This didn’t quite work out and I got up at 8:30am. My quilt was a bit damp and my tent was very wet from condensation. With my damp quilt I was very reluctant to pack it up, as I do not want to pack it away without being completely dry. With the sun still behind the hills though, there was no way I could dry it, so I packed it up and took down my tent. Just I was about ready to leave at 9:30am though, the sun peeked over the hills and brought warmth with it. I immediately unpacked my tent and quilt again to let them dry in the sun. While I am not too concerned about the tent, I want a dry quilt.

By 10am everything was dry enough and packed away and I was on my way. More, running away, as the sun had also brought out the sandflies in force. While my quilt was still drying in the sun they were swarming around it. But once I packed it away they came after me. I had a short look again at the hut I saw last night before continuing down the 4W track through the “town”.

Before the end of the town I came across a couple of fruit trees. There were a few apple trees and a pear tree. So I stopped and had some fresh fruit as my second breakfast.

Then I was at the end of the town. Here I continued following the 4W track through the river that I had already followed the day before. After 500m I had the option of continuing on the TA over Big Hill or following the 4W track to Albert Town. I somehow didn’t fancy going uphill again, and my feet were already wet, so I decided to follow the stream.

In the first 30 min, I only came across one 4W car going towards Macetown. It was filled with 4 young guys, looking all cool in their 4W. As I saw them, I was wandering what they were doing here. Considering the signs I had seen all over the historic town, about damages being done by 4W drives going off the track, I wondered if they were planning such a thing. When that though came over me they were already long gone and past me. about 10 minutes later I walked across the river and came upon a very surprising sight around a bend. There were about 20 4W drives here, with a whole lot of people about. I talked to some, and they are a 4W adventure tour going to Macetown. They offered me some cookies and tea which I declined though, as I had just stuffed myself with fruit. I joked that if I see hem coming back later I would put my thumb up. They promised to have an eye out for me and would take me if I still hadn’t reached Albert Town. Then I crossed the river again and continued on.

After meeting the group, the track continued further up the side of the hills, far above the river down below. At one point I could see the remnants of a crashed car down below. I do not know how long ago this happened, but it made me wary about driving on this road. Maybe it is good that I am walking.

Soon the road went down again towards the river and I had to cross it again, getting my feet wet again. There started to be more signs of civilisation now though. There was a huge pipe following along the river. Sometimes with water running through it, though I had also come upon parts at different stages, where there was nothing going through it. There must be multiple pipes. I also came across a guy with a big wheelbarrow in the river. At first I was confused what he was doing here, and then, after watching him for a few minutes I realised that he was washing for gold. Maybe I should have taken some dirt with me as well?

After noon I reached Albert Town, an old gold mining town. I didn’t spend to much time in it, just looking at what I was passing. It did look very quaint from what I could see.

After passing through Albert Town, I had to follow the road for a bit until I reached Millbrook. It seems to be some kind of country club or similar. There were very fancy houses that you could book or buy and a big golf course. Everything looked very neat and proper and I felt really out of place here. Especially with all the signs saying residents only. I was anxiously waiting to finally get out of here again. This just didn’t feel like my kind of crowd.

After walking through the resort, I came upon Lake Hayes. This was a very nice lake with great views, though you could see that I was getting closer and closer to civilisation. The other side of the lake was filled with houses, I could see countless cars passing there on a busy street and every now and then I saw planes coming down towards Queenstown Airport. Nevertheless I enjoyed these last pieces of nature before hitting the road again. On the right side of me, I could hear sheep up high on the hillside, trying to walk the very narrow and steep path to who knows where.

After passing the lake, I came upon State Highway 6 towards Queenstown. I decided at this point to stop walking and get a ride into Frankton for my resupply. It took me quite some time to get a car to stop, mainly because there was a car with a camper trailer standing in front of me, blocking me from view of the oncoming cars. The owners seemed to be walking their dog on the other side of the road. They seemed to be reluctant to come back, maybe they thought I would bug them about giving me a ride. I just wanted them to leave so the car wouldn’t be blocking me anymore. Finally, a woman stopped and gave me a lift to Frankton.

Here I walked to Pack’n’Save to start my resupply. As I reached the shop, I ran into the American couple again, having just finishing buying their groceries. They told me that he managed to catch up to his wife on the first leg of the section, all the way to Roses Hut. He had to walk the last bit in the dark though. At least they caught up. I joined them outside while they were packing their supplies away to go through my own food bag and figure out what I need to buy for the next section. As I was planning on doing a detour on the Greenstone/Caples Track, I needed to buy more food than they had. Ready to shop, I went inside and spent a ridiculous amount of time looking for everything. But this is what I do, spend ages food shopping, as I do not know the layouts of the store and have to go through every isle, and then I am questioning for a long time if I have enough or not.

With my remarkable affordable grocery shop done, I had spent less for 7 days here than I had for 4 days at New World in Wanaka, I walked back to the highway, hoping to find another car to take me to Queenstown. Just before I reached the highway I guy stopped to give me a lift into town. He is originally from Queenstown and we spent the time talking about the changes that the town had gone through in the last decade. How it became so busy and full. Then he dropped me off right in front of my hostel by the lakefront.

At the hostel I went and changed into my bikini and not worn longjohns to do my washing while I took a shower. Afterwards I pretty much spent the rest of the evening lying in my bed reading, writing and just relaxing. I had my quilt out again to make sure it really was completely dry, and then, as I couldn’t be bothered to sort out the sheet situation I just used it for sleeping. As Queenstown is quite busy though, it wasn’t until 2am that the party outside had finally died down and I could sleep.