Te Araroa Trail – Day 125

Monday March 11, 2024
Distance/ Total: 28.6 km / 17.8 mi

The trail from Arrowtown followed the Queenstown Bike path. The path followed the roadway out of town and turned into a golf course where it followed a gravel path. The path circled the golf course and headed down toward Lake Hayes.

The trail then followed the shoreline up high on the hillside which afforded some great views of the lake and airplanes on approach to Queenstown Airport. After reaching the end of the lake the trail crossed Hwy 6 and then dropped down on a gravel track through a neighborhood. The trail eventually made its way to the Kawarau River and continued along the river toward Frankton.

Before reaching Frankton the trail had to cross the Shotover River on the old Lower Shotover Bridge. The trail then split from the bike path and passed by the Five Mile Shopping Center which we took advantage of the resupply. We both bought our grocery resupply and then unpackaged most of it out front so we could get it into our backpacks. We still had about 12km to go for the day.

The trail from the shopping center went past some sports fields, a golf course, and through a park before reaching the lakeside trail on Lake Wakatipu. The trail went through a marina and then followed the shoreline around to Queenstown Harbor. The TA is interrupted once more from Queenstown Harbor to Greenstone Station on the other side of the lake. We had a couple of bunks reserved at Nomads Hostel in Queenstown and headed there to check in.

We checked in, showered, and then headed to dinner. There was a Mexican restaurant in Queenstown and we headed there for dinner. The menu was limited but they did have fajitas and tacos. I went for the steak fajitas and Shaun ordered chicken fajitas.

The fajitas were good and they even had hot sauce to spice things up. Back at the room I posted my blogs and fell to sleep about 10:00pm