Te Araroa Trail, Motatapu Track – Roses Hut to Arrowtown,
Woop woop!! Celebrating my 100th day on Te Araroa trail today 🙂 motatapu track
It was wonderful to have the 12 bunk Roses hut mostly to ourselves – with only 4 occupants last night. I’m so pleased I moved down country to miss the bad weather, and by all account the big bubble of of SOBOs, especially now I’m meeting the NOBOs.
I was the first out at 7am today, and immediately got stuck into a steep 500m climb. The Motatapu Track certainly didn’t let up!! By 8.20am I’d made it to Roses saddle 1270m. I was overtaken by Curly, who trotted up and over the saddle with his light pack.
I descended from the saddle down a breathtaking ridge, to the Arrow river. Max caught up and we immediately crossed the main river and had a quick break on a huge flat rock.
Wakling the Arrow River to Macetown Motatapu Track
We walked the remaining 4kms or so in the river. The trail notes suggested it was the quickest route during low flow. It was certainly very beautiful, and my favourite river walk so far, with sparkling clear water and lovely multicoloured rocks underfoot.
It was mostly about knee deep with a few deeper parts, and we walked from bank to bank as the river meandered to the historic gold mining settlelment of Macetown.
Macetown to Arrowtown
We reached the start of Macetown at 11.45am and continued along a 4 wheel drive track. We stopped to look at some of the historical notice boards. This used to be a gold mining built in the 1860s then abandoned in the 1930s. Some buildings were renovated in 2008.
It was one of those days where in hindsight, I really wished I had stopped, taken a good look around and camped for the night – but at the time I felt like Arrowtown was the only goal and I still had 15Kms to go.
After a very quick lunch I left Macetown at 1pm for the next 13kms into Arrowtown via the aptly named Big Hill track.
I huffed and puffed during the 400m climb over the saddle, which I reached at 2.30pm. It was another clear sunny day, and extremely hot. Thanks goodness I’d refilled my water at Macetown! The views from the saddle at Big Hill were beautiful, although if I was being really picky, I’d say the track wasn’t quite as nice as the Motatapu track. From the top it was a very long descent into Arrowtown via the Big Hill Walkway which took another 2 hours.
Arrowtown Te Araroa Trail Motatapu
Arrowtown is possibly the most beautiful little village in New Zealand! It’s a quirky little heritage town, population only 2000 (increased significantly with tourists I would imagine) with a rich mining history. I found the Patagonia choclatier, and enjoyed a huge ice-cream, and a fresh juice.
I stayed at the Arrowtown Holiday Park a short walk from the main street. When I got settled I checked my feet. I was pleasantly surprised at the state of them, when I took my still-wet socks off. Given they’d been wet for the past 6 hours, they were in pretty decent shape with no sign of any new blisters.
I have been using the emmolient cream the doctor prescribed (essentially, Sudocrem), so along with the steroid cream it seems like a winning formula.