Fall Color in March

Arrowtown is apparently one of, if not the best spots in New Zealand for fall colors, and I randomly happened to end up here under blue skies as the show was starting. The karma gods clearly have me mixed up with someone else, but I’ll take it.

Today was another day of hiking, first on the unfortunately-named-but-very-scenic Sawpit Gulley Walk, and later on a two hour loop around Lake Hayes. New Zealand always seems to denote trail distances in hours rather than kilometers, which makes sense when a handful of trails are flat and the rest are vertical death marches, and thus a 5 km flat trail might take 1 – 1.5 hours, while a 5 km uphill climb of doom is more likely 2 – 3 hours. They also rate their trails as “easy”, “intermediate” or “advanced”, which so far as I have discovered means the following:

• Easy – A walking trail that is dead-simple to navigate and that will be designed and maintained to standards that would meet or exceed those expected of the best US Interstate Highway. The trail might be long and might have a few minimally challenging sections, but you probably won’t notice because the scenery will be so great.
• Intermediate – A trail that is relatively easy to follow as long as you pay attention to where you’re going. There will be several long and steep sections that will cause you to get lightheaded and lose a few pounds in water weight. While hiking, expect to be passed along the trail by at least a half dozen New Zealanders out for a leisurely morning jog.
• Advanced – A trail that may not be anything more than a goat trail, where navigation is done by following rock cairns and the blood and tears of other hikers. Expect to be using your hands for balance and support on steep sections. Advanced trails should not be attempted by anyone without survival training and hoofs. The Department of Conservation will have likely built a hut for backpackers along this trail, and it will inevitably be staffed by a lovely seventy-five year old New Zealand man who hikes the trail twice a week with 100 pounds of supplies on his back.

Thus far all of the trails I’ve done have fallen into the “easy” and “intermediate” categories (no, the vertical 2,000 stair Sealy Tarn trail didn’t make the “advanced” cut), but I’ve stared into the abyss of a few of the advanced trails and decided that I value my knees too much to sacrifice them for a slightly better view of the landscape.