Day 106: I Ain’t Saying She a Gold River
January 24, 2020
Kilometers: 2607.9-2634.3
Fern Burn Hut to Macetown
Our alarms all went off at 5:30. It was still totally dark outside. We all moved around the hut getting our stuff together using the flashlights on our phones. At 6 I was the first one out the door and onto the trail.
The large majority of the day consisted of four huge climbs one right after another. The first one started right from the hut. It was a 530 meter climb over 3.3kms to Jack Halls Saddle. I moved uphill quickly as it was still dark out.
As I continued to climb the sun finally came up through the valley creating some nice colors. At points lake wanaka became visible behind us, which you can see in the second pic below.
The climb to the saddle was tough. I was sweating pretty hard despite the cool temperature. I made it up to the saddle in an hour and waited for Charlie and Peter. The view at the top was great.
The trail from the saddle went straight down a ridge towards the river in the valley. It was such a steep descent with huge drops offs on both sides that it took us just as long to get back down to the river as it did to get up to the saddle.
After getting down to the river and a few small climbs and descents I turned the corner and could see the next hut in the distance. I arrived at the hut at 8am and had gotten there before a group of NOBO hikers had started for the day. They were very impressed to see us there that early.
From the hut we started our second big climb of the day. This one was just over 400 meters of climbing over about 2kms. The sun still wasn’t that high in the sky so there was a good amount of shade. The climb started extremely steep and then leveled out a bit. About two thirds of the way up I passed Lizzie and two other UK guys she was with. She skipped a large section of the hike so she got ahead of us. I reached the top at 9am and sat down for a break. We were happy to have two of the four climbs completed very early.
We then dropped 440 meters in less than 2kms. This started to hurt the knees a bit. Going down something that steep is much harder on the knees and legs than going up. We reached a creek at the bottom, refilled our water, and were back at it.
The third climb was about a 425 meter climb over 1.8kms. It was steep but was actually the easiest climb, although the sweat on my shirt would make you question that. We hammered away at the steep beginning and then walked up a ridge to the top. We arrived before 11am.
We ate lunch at the top. Three out of the four were done and we felt good. After lunch we descended down towards the next hut. We could see it far in the distance and it very slowly got closer and closer. We arrived before noon to find two Finnish woman our age taking a zero day there. We took about a 30 minute break there talking with them. After refilling our water again we were off for our last climb.
The fourth and final climb was a bit more than 500 meters over 2.5kms. This climb ended up being the hardest because the sun was the hottest during it. We were all taking many breaks every couple hundred meters, catching our breaths and wiping sweat out of our faces.
Player/coach/owner Jackie Moon once sang in his hit song “Love Me Sexy” that he could fill a bathtub full of sweat. I think that between the four climbs today I definitely could have filled a bathtub full of sweat. Gross, I know, but true.
After another well deserved break at the top we headed down off the mountain towards Arrow River. When we got down to the river we had a choice, we could either take the high water route or the low water route. The low water route meant just walking in the river downstream so we took that to avoid any more climbing.
Before we started we all hopped in the river in our clothes. We were hot, sweaty and needed to cool down.
We took off down river. It was a nice change of pace from the earlier part of the day. As we walked we kept an eye out for any gold in the river, which I’ll get to in a second.
We walked through the river for about an hour and a half. Eventually, we arrived at Macetown. Macetown is an uninhabited town that used to be a gold mining community. Now only one building remains standing. We were expecting a bit more when we read about it.
We found the camping site and sat down. We usually put up our tents right away but today was different. We were exhausted and just ate for about thirty minutes before anything productive was done. Finally we did set up camp and went down to the river for a bath. Here what our day looked like from the elevation profile.
We relaxed until dinner time. I had another dinner of rice, salami and a pita with a snickers bar for desert. We also learned the real reason why Macetown was deserted. It wasn’t because the gold dried up, it was because of the hoards of sandflies.
The last forecast we saw called for rain in the morning. Hopefully that’s not the case. Either way we will be sleeping in a real bed tomorrow night in Queenstown.