How do I find the hikes we do? I trawl Instagram for a good amount of time in the week, choose a place I want to see and then hope that their is a designated path to said place. For example Wye Creek, I had heard about it, seen some pictures and then heard it was a ten hour one way hike through to the back of The Remarkables, which would be amazing but I didn’t feel like my level of fitness was quite up there yet. However there is a wooden platform that is way more accessible and didn’t look to far away from the lake, surely only a few hours hike… it was! YEY!
We set off on a cloudy Saturday morning, fuelled with coffee in search for the car park, naturally we drove past it as I was in charge of directions, quick U Turn and we decided to park up on the opposite side of the road to save the wheel of our car the trauma of an unsealed road. I was so excited I practically ran the first bit of the track, which is an actual road, for anyone that has a 4 x 4 you can skip most of the hike by driving halfway up. The ‘real’ track climbs up through the bush, up and up and up, it had rained the night before so it was a little slippy but still fairly easy, just a little steeper than Queenstown Hill. When we reached the water station, which is incredible, we spent some time just watching the water… it was so blue and so powerful, I was convinced we could of had a little dip just under the waterfall but Robbie said we would be pulled over the edge. We started to climb again to the left of the station, winding up through the tree’s, I had a feeling we were going the wrong way, by wrong way I mean away from the platform.
We were in fact on the actual Wye Creek track to The Remarkables. So we turned round and crossed over the huge water pipe, carry on walking on top of the pipe, there is a rail and two pieces of wood laid down to keep you stable..the rail I needed as my legs were all shaky knowing there was a huge drop under the pipe & finally the platform comes into view. Climb the ladder and the view is incredible, Lake Wakatipu framed by the mountains and Queenstown just in the distance. We had the platform to ourselves and enjoyed a picnic listening to the raging Wye Creek waterfall next to us. The descent was way easier and quicker despite me being like an 80 year old lady unable to steady myself on even flat ground… but I made it even if I have to slip down on my backside at times!
We have walked Wye Creek twice now, both on great weather days and exploring a little more on the second time, we walked around the edge, past the platform, this is where people go to rock climb, proper rock climbing with ropes and clips, I watched one woman scale a full cliff face in the time it took me to eat my sandwich! The view is amazing and Robbie had a little photography lesson at the top. I have an SLR that has been collecting dust for about a year as I am a religious user of my Fujifilm X100t so Robbie picked up the Nikon and my 85mm portrait lens and is now up to speed about Aperture and F-stops! I think Wye Creek just became my new favourite hang out, I can’t wait to go back in the Summer and attempt the ‘real’ track up into the Remarkables!
Notes of a Northerner 
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