Queenstown
We flew to Christchurch then drove to Queenstown, stopping to visit Marilyn in Lincoln and then Marion in Timaru on the way. We are staying in Queenstown for a few days before the walk to relax and acclimatise and build up our caffeine levels. To cap off our intensive training program we climbed Queenstown Hill, which rises about 500 metres above the town. That's high enough to give us a taste of what it will be like getting over the MacKinnon Pass in a few days time. It was quite a steep climb.
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| Looking back down to the town |
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| View from the top of Queenstown Hill |
Day One - to Glade House
The first day is easy - we had a nice bus trip down the east side of Lake Wakatipu and onward to Te Anau, where we stopped for lunch. The bus then carries on up the side of Lake Te Anau to Te Anua Downs. There we transferred to the boat which took us up to Glade Wharf the northern tip of the lake, where reality set in as we stepped off into the rain and loaded our packs onto our backs. It was mid afternoon.
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| Glade Wharf |
From the wharf it is a flat 1.4 km walk to our first stop, Glade House beside the Clinton River. Got our first taste of the accommodation there - a plain but clean and comfortable room with luxuries such as a radiator and a hot shower. Even a little coffee machine in the dining room. This is not tramping the way we used to do it!
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| Luxury tramping! |
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| Covered walkways link the rooms |
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| Supplies are helicoptered in |
It was cloudy and wet, and the forecast was for a "weather bomb" which didn't sound good. Because of this we spent up on more rain-proof gear in Queenstown. At night there was deafening thunder which shook the walls, and it rained heavily. At least we had been able to glimpse the peaks around us, and as we were told several times "...the waterfalls will be great!".
