Sawpit Gully

 

 

Arrowtown is an old gold mining village just a short drive from Queenstown. The main street is a replica of what it used to be just tarted up a little to keep it fresh for all the visitors. It is so pretty and reminds me of an old western, my favourite shop is of course The Remarkables sweet shop where I can still get my fix of home with a good ol’ bag of Yorkshire mixture, they also make fudge in house and let you sample as much as you like, well until you’ve filled your belly and walk away with a big thank you!

We were looking for a walk to do this fine Autumn afternoon and Sawpit Gully looked like a nice easy loop track. Autumn in Arrowtown is truly beautiful, the hills surrounding explode with red and orange and every tree seems to be a different colour. It looks like a painting, its beauty is that well known they hold an annual Autumn festival to celebrate. Knowing Kiwi’s though it is probably just another excuse to get the beers out, but why not! So we went to the start of the track and took a right, I am so happy we did as starting from the right made for a much nicer walk. The track is pretty flat to start so I was loving life, just what we needed, a steady Sunday stroll. The path wound up the Arrow River which doubles for a four wheel drive track that leads up to Mace Town, so we could watch people sink the bonnets of their crazy trucks below. We saw a bridge below and the path led this way so we followed, after hanging round on the bridge and making Robbie star in an impromptu photo shoot, we started to climb up a road… I thought it was weird we were on the other side of the river with no bridge in sight, how would we get back to the loop? Yep, we got lost AGAIN… I blame Robbie, his conversation skills are highly distracting. I managed to get some cell coverage and google mapped us, we hadn’t come far off the track so we quickly hopped back over the bridge. No wonder we missed the turn for the loop, it was a small thin (like bike tyre thin) track going up through the tree’s. Today of all days I decided to hike in a wooly hat, why? It was overcast when we left the house.

We found a small opening that provided the perfect picnic spot and a place for me to take off my hat and try and dry my hair, it actually looked like someone had poured a bucket of water over my head! It is a good job that you don’t have to share these trails with loads of people. Cooled down and dry hair we were off again, up and over hills and then stepping over the small streams that ran through the gully. This quick became one of my favourite walks we had done, it was such a different view every time you turned the corner and not just a long uphill slog. When we reached the top of the trail the view of Lake Hayes and The Remarkables was amazing. Perfectly framed by the hills of Arrowtown it was picture perfect.

The track then continued downhill and eventually met up with the Arrow River, over bridges and streams again and back on level land as we followed it all the way back to the start. I was also quite proud that I had completed a walk with no hiccups, I stayed firmly on my feet you know like a real adult and Robbie’s ears got a well deserved rest from my constant cries of surrender. There is a small house in the old Chinese settlement that is very much abandoned but on everyones Instagram hit list, one day it is going to make someone very happy. We waited until everyone had moved their cars and I went in for the shot. I fell in love with it and I hate that no one has given it a little make over, someone must own it though as there is remnants of life inside.

The Autumn colours and beautiful weather made this Sunday perfect, I am so happy that we live somewhere where there is always something different to do and places to see, another visit to the sweet shop rounded our day off right, you can’t beat good old fashioned rhubarb and custards!