Day 22 – Queenstown to Macetown
Today Roxane is flying to Auckland, and I’m getting back on the trail. There’s currently no open track between Queenstown and Arrowtown, and I’ve had enough road walking by now to last me a while. So I decided to take the Connectabus to Arrowtown, from where I get on the Big Hill track to Macetown, an ex-town in the hills that used to be a mining center and is now a historic reserve. Luckily, this bus is also the one that goes to the airport, so Rox and I could have some extra time together. One small problem: I still had to mail my bounce box! So I rushed off while Roxane waited for the bus, got my package mailed, and managed to run back in time to catch the bus at a later stop in town.
Roxane got off first, so we said our sad goodbyes. I stayed on, and before I knew it, I was in Arrowtown getting back on the trail. Big Hill was as promised, with great views at the top. I descended the other side to a 4WD track and was soon in Macetown setting up camp early. It’s a lovely place to camp - plenty of mature trees to hang my hammock, and a view of the river.
I was a bit dismayed when a couple of trucks pulled up – I would no longer have the spot to myself. But there was plenty of room, and one of the newcomers walked over to introduce himself and chat. They’re part of a local tramping club, and would be hiking the Motatapu in the same direction as me. I thought to myself, “I just put in all this people time in Queenstown - I was looking forward to a bit of solitude again!” I felt like I should walk over and meet the rest of their crew, but the sandflies were bad, so I holed up in my hammock and read a book the rest of the night.
One thing I was quite excited about today: my camera, which was dead, got a full charge in Queenstown, so I’ve been playing with it a lot. I figured out how to use the manual focus mode to take macro photos as close as 1 cm from my subject! Most point-and-shoot cameras can’t do that. So I spent a good part of the day taking excessive numbers of flower photos.