Hollyford Track Day 5 and out to Gunn’s Camp

Long day. Great weather. Very windy, so less sandflies. Four beers were still in the river waiting for me when I got out! Doesn’t get much better than that.

I was up early this morning at 5:30am and on the trail at 6am to get to Martin’s Bay Lodge to catch the jet boat out. 3 others were doing the same plus a big boat of trampers at the lodge doing a guided waslk so the boat was FULL. So full that they had to leave the low-life dirty hut trampers off at McKerrow Island and take the high-rollers out then come back and get us in order to get through the low part of the river ok. The views of Hollyford Valley from the water were great. What took 2 days of walking took only 1.5 hours by boat and by 10am I was at the confluence of the Pyke and Hollyford Rivers and had a 20 km cruise out to the road from there.

It was a bit of a race to get out since we all got dropped off at the same time – at first in the lead were the two Mt. Cook mountain guides (a man and a woman), then me, then a group of 8 Kiwis who were out in the bush for several days hunting. The bush people passed both me and the guides and I though it was over, then they took a break and I passed them and then passed the mountain guides, and guess what, the ol’ wondergimp in her sandals beat them all in the end by miles!

I got to the road and started the 8 km road walk out to Gunn’s Camp but got picked up right away by an older Israeli couple. Cool! Their 20-minute lift saved me another 2 hours of walking.

I got to the camp and paid my $5 tent site fee and then went straight down to the river to look for my beer. And it was still there hidden under the rocks – 4 cans of cold Victoria Bitter! Nothing tastes better than a cold beer after a few days of hiking. As I was on the second beer I saw the mountain guides drive by and then the bush-walking deer killers. Hah! Still can’t catch me.

Since then I’ve done my laundry (by hand in the old wringer) and had a hot shower and resupplied my food for the next few days at the office store and now I am RELAXING. Feels great to be clean and in clean clothes.

Tomorrow I will try to hitch out to the beginning of the Routeburn Track and pick up the Greenstone Trail heading back to Queenstown.

Sandflies in New Zealand are always a nuisance

3-wire bridge on the Demon Trail

The Settler Museum at Gunns Camp

Add comment January 14th, 2003