Te Araroa 31/01/26

Day 132, Roses Hut to Arrowtown (2706)

A cold morning but a clear blue sky promised a hot day.

Morning light 

I left the hut for the steep climb to Roses Saddle at 1270 meters, the sun was just coming up and there were even some zigzags towards the top so the ascent wasn't too painful!

Leaving Roses Hut

What a beautiful morning 

Once over the saddle there was the usual steep descent to the Arrow River. When I got to the river I had to decide wether to take the high route or walk the river.

El Tejido pretending he got here on his own 

Ridge down to the Arrow River

 I took the high route for a while with some lovely views but when the path descended to the river again and I was faced with a big climb I thought I would take the river route.

The Arrow River 

No path just the river

I'm not sure if it was the correct decision as the first kilometre was actually walking in the river, not that deep but slow and very cold on the feet.

The track with lupins

The track keep crossing the river as well

I did enjoy it though after the steep ascents and descents of the last few days. Eventually the river banks relented and allowed me to walk some sections but with numerous crossings to connect them.

Butterflies by the path

Eventually I reached Macetown which is an abandoned mining town with almost nothing left to see, I think there were a few more remains but not on my route.

A final river crossing 

The track rises above the river

There are two routes that I could take from Macetown and I chose the longer, lower route that follows the Arrow River via a 4WD track.

Through some interesting rock formations 

There were numerous river crossings but my feet were wet anyway and none of them were difficult.

I really enjoyed the route which went through a spectacular gorge and there were tide lines on the hillside presumably from an ice age lake as in Glen Roy.

The river was much bigger as I approached Arrowtown 

Arrowtown is a real tourist town trading on the gold rush era but it has a decent campsite even if it was overpriced, high season has another week to go.

The center of historic Arrowtown 

According to the weather forecast I have another good day tomorrow for the walk to Queenstown but it looks bad for Monday so I have booked two nights at the holiday park for a rest day to wait it out.

Arrowtown campsite