11 Macetown - Tarras

Day 8. Leaving Wanaka behind, we headed to Arrowtown through the Crown Range and past the original Cardrona Hotel.

Arriving in Arrowtown, we made our way to the Chinese Settlement. Ray and family had a culturally questionable photo taken near the Settlement Museum and Ray was seen combing through names making sure he wasn't owed some kind of family gold.

Unfortunately, Brian's truck was out of commission so had to sit the Macetown track out. The rest of the crew checked that they had lunch provisions and proceeded to the start.

Macetown is a historic gold mining settlement that is now uninhabited. Access to the town is via an unsealed road that heads up the steep-sided Arrow gorge. The road crosses the Arrow River or its side creeks 22 times!

There were some quite deep bits! And when we made it to the Baker's house, I was able to enjoy a Ham and Midgey sandwich. Mmm. Yum.

To be honest the Midgeys made me a bit grumpy and I learnt a valuable camping lesson off Yvonne - ALWAYS carry fly spray.

On the way back to Arrowtown, we came across a couple of black 110 Defenders taking tourists to Macetown. We all had to stop so that Ray could compose himself.

Back with Brian, we needed to get back on the road to Cromwell.
We had planned to have dinner there and then head to the Otago 4x4 Land Rover Owners private camp in Tarras.

Unfortunately, Kyely's truck developed a radiator issue so LR2 had to settle in Cromwell for the night. After a hearty meal on the shores of Lake Dunstan, we all set off again - sans LR2 for the evening journey to Tarras. As we were crossing the bridge, Jim's Disco seem to go out in sympathy with LR2!!! So another truck down, the remaining trucks set off - destination secret Tarras Camp!!

We finally located camp. Actually we over shot it - but earlier, LR04 had noticed a random Disco 4 ahead and had speculated about its destination. It had turned off earlier so we re-traced our steps and stumbled upon the entrance to Tarras camp.
It was very late when we arrived but we were heartily welcomed by the Camp Leader and they had even set up a marquee for us to centre around.
As these Otago days seemed to stretch into the late evenings, we had enough light to set up camp and discover the amazing showers.

We were all tired and depleted in numbers. Our thoughts were with our missing trucks.