Day 48: Queenstown - Greenstone Hut

80km hitchhike, 12.5km, 3hours

It's blowing me away every time I write what day it is. How am I at 48?! It doesn't feel like that at all! It's all gone so fast and my days on trail are numbered. I'm trying not to think about it.

Today we start on the Greenstone track connecting with the Mavora Lakes walkway. The 80km road section from Queenstown to Glenorchy is a designated exclusión zone on the TA meaning we don't have to walk it, you just need to get to Greenstone Carpark to start on trail again.

For this you can pay a shuttle to take you or hitchhike. It was $60 for the shuttle and here's an insight into how my mind works. I easily spent well over $100 on dinner and a night out Saturday night but was like 'hmmm $60!?! I could hitch and save $60!' i guess priorities.

I had a new pair of shoes sent to Mel in Frankton that i picked up yesterday as my Altras after 1000km of hard rough work are tearing at the seams. I'm unsure if they would make the last 300km but they have done me so well. I cannot tell you how emotional I got throwing my Altras away. It was like I was deserting a trusty friend so close to the end who still has life left in them. I said a solemn thanks and popped them in the rubbish bin. I put my Salomons on and wandered around in them for a while before realising I can't leave my Altras! Out of the bin they came. They haven't failed me once so why should they now. In fact they've saved me on many an occasion. I figured I'd be able to do some dental floss and duct tape repairs along the way if needed but they deserved to get to Bluff too.

While the others waited for the 11am shuttle, I headed out to the road out of Queenstown and threw my thumb out. Its Waitangi Day today so I thought this can either work in my favour that lots of people will be out and about or that it's early on a public holiday and people won't be out. It took 15minutes which is not bad at all for a 4wd to pull over and two men in their 60's asked where I was headed. 'I need to get to Greenstone Carpark on the otherside of the Lake to Glenorchy but even a lift to Glenorchy would be amazing'. 'sure, jump in!'.

So I'm now on a drive to Glenorchy with Canadian Dan from Vancouver and his Kiwi mate Pete. They met many years ago camping next to each other and have remained great friends. Dan spends his Canadian winters in NZ and at the moment they have left their wives at home and both have their van and caravan and are just tiki touring around.

They spent the drive giving me life advice. Most notably: 'Trust yourself. Just do it'. Applying to everything. Second which they stressed was stay out of debt and live within your means so that it makes it a whole lot easier to do what you enjoy.

Their next bit of advice was be skilled and knowledgeable in a wide range of things and try your hand at anything. When starting new jobs do the dirty work first even if this is cleaning toilets and bathrooms because you will be noticed. Dan also threw in you need to be friendly and have just enough cheek. They both were firm believers in doing what you love and do things when youre young and not to wait until it's too late. I think they soon realised when talking to me that I share that same thought.

What was cool was that Dan spent 30 years working for Arc'teryx. An ultralight hiking/outdoor brand which he helped develop from the ground up. He was right into gear chat and has spent his whole life hiking and mountaineering in Canada.

Pete who grew up in Christchurch and spent his whole life as a truck driver now spends his summer working hard on different seasonal jobs. He's tried apple picking, building, farming and now works on a station down near Queenstown. It makes himself feel useful and gives him something to do part the year in his retirement while then spending the winters in France.

We reached Glenorchy and Pete said would you mind if we dropped in on my Nephew. He is a jet boat driver for Dart River Jet boats. Umm yeah of course we can go visit him. We turned up at his house and he wasn't there so we drove to his work shed. Ended up being shown a bunch of jet boats but no nephew. And then what Pete said next i couldn't believe 'ah well not to worry, let's just go for a drive and take you to where you need to go.' another 40km away! They drove me 80km out of their way! I couldn't believe it. I was so appreciative but they kept downplaying it saying this is why you do it, it takes us to places we haven't been before too.

After an hour and a half we had reached Greenstone Carpark. We gave each other a hug and waved my hitchhiker dad's goodbye before hitting the trail.

It was only 12km today. I felt so guilty that it was only 12. That's nearly a day off and better still it was mostly flat! Like a walk in the park, it was all over in 2.5 hours! It was overcast as well today so it wasn't hot and the track was back in the bush line. As it's part of some well known tracks the path is wide and in very good condition unlike pretty much everything else we've hiked over.

There's been a bit of rain so the rivers are up and there was two smaller creek crossings i had to cross which looked a lot worse than they actually were but could still see how a missfoot would send you easily downstream.

I reached Greenstone Hut which is a large 20 bed serviced hut ($20/night) the fire was lit already and I quickly went in search for a bed. I walk into one of the bunk rooms and there was Steph & Zac who we stayed with at Top Timaru Hut. I screamed i was so excited to see them unexpectedly. We caught up with them for drinks in Wanaka and said bye then thinking we wouldn't get to see them again so it was such a welcomed surprise!

The hut is so full tonight. I think we've easily got 30 people here thanks to it being a main hut on both the Greenstone, Caplea & Mavora tracks. I'm so glad I hitchhiked and got here early to get a bed. I've taken my mattress outside on the deck to lay in the afternoon sun and apart from the pesky sandflies biting my hands, i am very very relaxed.

Ren x