Te Araroa Day 95, Eichardt's Flat to Queenstown

Starting km: 2680
Finishing km: 2711
km covered today: 31

I was surprise to meet someone running up the track I was walking down a mere 20 minutes after staring, around 6:35 (it often takes me about 40 minutes to break camp when I'm in the tent, but was quicker after sleeping under the stars.)

I'd become used to seeing other people. The walk took me through Arrowtown, then into a fancy resort-community-development thing, through some fancy suburbs and then into Frankton, which is now pretty much a suburb of Queenstown (all the big supermarkets, the airport, that major marina, etc. are there.)

Along the way I managed to get lost twice. The first time I had to retrace my steps by 750m (the worst instance of this on the trail so far!) Then at the second I looked at a map, found an alternate route that didn't involve backtracking and just carried on.

It was also in this period that I came across this day's trail foraging treat: tons of plums! There were at least three varieties, some tiny ones the size of cherries (these were super sweet and I ate 30 or 40 of them), prune plums (not quite ripe yet), and some larger red ones with nice free stones (I restrained myself to maybe 20 of these.)

Once in Frankton the trail pleasantly followed the lakeshore into Queenstown.

It had been a few years since I'd been in Queenstown  and, unsurprisingly the tourist madness had continued to grow exponentially (though I think they've actually done a pretty good job of making it remain an appealing place while this has been going on.)

While waiting to check in to my hostel I walked around a lot, went for a swim in the lake (pleasantly warm, rather to my astonishment) and had a beer and a huge bowl of pulled pork and cheese fries at the craft beer bar across the street.

The afternoon (once again, referring to times after 14:00) was spent inside fixing my shoes, planning the final leg of the journey (pretty much 90% finished!) etc.

Now that it's grown a bit cooler I may venture out again and see what Queenstown in the evening is like...