Kinloch Lodge

I had planned to go out at to party at least one night, for the in depth Queenstown experience. However in the end I couldn't be bothered, sleeping is just too awesome. I then headed off in the direction of paradise. There were a lot of of tracks I wanted to do in that area.

My first ride was an Australian expat. He worked in all the adrenaline related tourism activities, at the time in canyoning and said his job was a joke, pure fun. He was on his way to a fishing spot and left me in Glenorchy("gateway to paradise"). Back in Invercargill a crazy religious nut German woman told me the Kinloch Lodge was awesome. It was pricey too, but I thought if it's really that nice, I'll afford the luxury. So I hitched another ride with an old British couple on the way to a campground. This campground was conveniently located right next to the lodge.

The lodge had advertised that they sold trampers supplies. However when I asked they didn't really have much decent food. In the end I only bought a pack of deep frozen toast for 6$ that was going to be my breakfast along with the jar of peanut butter I had brought.
For dinner I ate at their expensive restaurant. I also joined the yha to get the "free" WiFi, thinking that it might pay off one day.
The next day I got up late and the Japanese guy who had the plan as I had and a car, had already left. Just like everyone else. Oh well tomorrow I thought. So instead I checked out the immediate surroundings and studied the wall maps for tracks. I saw that in theory I could walk up to the start of the Routeburn.
In the evening I tried the spa pool.. it definitely stunk, with the water having a greenish colour. I thought that probably must be super healthy, so I endured it for half an hour, then shower and bed.

Same thing, I got up late but this time decided to try and get to the routeburn. After a bit of walking a car passed, and somehow I just didn't feel like hitching, so just walked on. After leaving the protection of the trees I found myself in the middle of a silt storm. I continued down the road and put on Sun glasses to protect my eyes..just not from the sun. After walking against the storm for a while I saw a track sign and thought: " It goes into the forest. Forest means protection from storm".
The decision was made I started the glacier burn track. Some cars were parked there and the first hurdle was a small stream. I saw two girls who were just walking through. I smugly sandalized the river and walked past them. They told me there was another guy ahead. The girls were Israelis from the accent.

I was in the forest just a few moments later and after a few more minutes passed an old man. I kept walking until I passed the tree line. I looked up the snowy saddle and was quite tempted to climb up in the snow. Instead however I stopped about halfway between tree and snow line, then turned around and sat down to watch the storm from above. I sat there for a small eternity, thinking. I thought it was time to write an article titled broken.

Then I slowly headed down to encounter the Israeli girls again. They told me the old man had told them some guy had "run" past him. So we chatted a bit until I left them behind. I never met the old man again.
When I was back at the road the storm had settled a bit but I still was covered in dust when I was back at the hostel.
The next day I decided to head back to glenorchy to get some food. A woman who was having breakfast at the same time as I gave me a lift.