Day 44: Roses Hut to Arrowtown

26km, 8hrs

Well today outdid itself. When I thought it wasn't possible to sweat any more than I did yesterday, within the first 10minutes vertical climb I was disgustingly saturated. David passed me and said what is the point of us washing of a night and he posed a very valid point! I'm so glad I squeezed down and contortioned my body to try fit in a 40cm wide underground stream to wash off yesterday.... Humidity today must have been at 100%. The others in the hut had said today was meant to be bad weather but it was just overcast, and again no rain.

The air just felt so thick and humid and it makes it so hard to climb and take in deep breaths. Luckily as soon as I reached the cloud line on the first summit, it was cold again and not humid. (Note to self to look this weather reasoning up). It's great to reach a summit but when you're at 1250m high and you are drenched and the wind is blowing and you're in the clouds you don't want to stick around because you freeze instantly. So I powered down the other side of the mountain. I wasn't even mad I didn't get any views, I just wanted out of there but as luck would have it a few hundred metres down the clouds cleared and I got views over all the mountains and river. Like curtains had been drawn on a stage revealing the next part of our show. The next mountain range.

I met David at the river who was waiting for us and we chilled out until Conny & Laura had caught up. At this point there were signs which said high water track or low water track. Was there really any question. I said to the crew 'low for sure, lets have an adventure in the river'. That adventure was to be 5 whole kilometres in the river not even on the river bed thanks to gorse and cliffs lining the edges. The water was fast flowing but most of the time at knee height with a few deep holes here and there. Apart from having freezing little toes the river was beautiful. It was a rocky bottom but these rocks were different to the other rivers we'd crossed. Most of them were flat rocks or the majority of them stable and not moving when you stand on them. Every now and the you'd reach a cliff where the river bends and it gave me flashbacks of my 5 day Clarence river rafting trip a few years back. 9 of us decided to go on a rafting expedition except none of us knew how to stear a raft so we'd just smash into the cliffs. The similarities between these cliffs and those I'd come very close with on the Clarence were uncanny, it made me chuckle.

Clearing the river we eventually made it to Macetown and old mining settlement With just a collection of old heritage cottages. We had lunch together and got absolutely eaten alive by sandflies yet again. They simply ruin every beautiful location.

I knew we had one more mountain to climb before the descent into Arrowtown. Knowing this was the last climb made it seem far more bearable and it seemed to go quicker than the others but boy did we climb! Reaching the saddle, we ran into an older man who had just made it up and got him to take a quick snap of us before the rain set in and I was off! It rained the whole way down, adding slippery muddy tracks a new element of fun. Luckily I didn't slide over but Conny wasnt so lucky. Apparently when she made it to the car park at Arrowtown she must have been looking so dirty and dishevelled she didn't even have to try and hitchhike a lady came and asked her if she was ok and needed help, haha! The lady was so intent on helping Conny that Conny said yes to a 400m car ride to the Arrowtown Holiday Park.

Arriving in Arrowtown I met up with Ivan at the pub on my way through. I didn't even care that I stunk and was soaking wet through and through. That first sip of beer will always be the best reward. By now it had stopped raining and blue sky appeared. I'm doing pretty ok with this weather!

We headed to the campsite and set up our tents and all had that much deserved hot shower. We all hung our clothes to dry on a tree because we'd been in the bush so long we'd forgotten that clotheslines in a camp ground do exist. My shower had the hottest and best pressure Ive had the whole trail. I honestly felt like I was a car in an automatic high pressured car wash. I just let it blast all the mud off me.

We headed out for a nice dinner together and by 7:30pm I think we were all ready for bed. The four of us wandered the Arrowtown streets looking in the quaint shop windows, talking about our clothes we wear back home and then it was a little light bulb moment between all of us. In Hanmer Springs we had set the idea in notion that if we all got to Queenstown we would all meet up and have a night out. Little did we know we'd all meet up 2 weeks earlier and now spend every night together... But we had a great thought, since all we have for clothes is 2 pairs: what we walk in and then what we sleep in. What if we went to an op shop and set ourselves a $10 budget to buy a going out outfit. Then it got taken one step further. Why don't we buy clothes for another person. We're split on being evil and being nice.

I've arrived back at the campground and as I'm approaching along the footpath I hear bagpipes. Not one, a band of bagpipes. Ohh no I thought as I remember seeing a town hall next to the campground. Why of all nights do we come out of the mountains and are swapping the sound of people's snoring to the sounds of bagpipes. I am not amused!

Ren x