We woke to fine day - time to go for another walk and enjoy the spectacular southern alps! Today, we took the bus to historic Arrowtown and go for a walk from there. The bus is a great deal to get from Queenstown to Arrowtown at $4pp and pleasingly there were heaps of people taking it with us. Today’s walk was the Sawpit Gully Loop Track. This isn’t the first time we’ve walked this track - perhaps the third time - but it is a lovely trail and bite-sized at 2-3 hrs. Perfect! Alltrails says it’s a moderate trail with around 7 kms and a 450m climb. Of course some say that’s more hard than moderate but it’s all relative. The trail starts as soon as you cross the picturesque Arrow River. Clear, fast running, stoney and tree-lined, it’s a gorgeous section to walk along. You don’t have to go too far and you can look down on the Ford of Bruinen - a location made famous in the first LotR movie where Arwen & Frodo cross the ford to escape the Nazgûls. The trail is up the hill from the Ford but you catch glimpses of it and can walk down to it on 4WD tracks if you wish. We soon start climbing, following along an overgrown stream valley between two high hills. We meet some walkers where one lady, Di, asks if we would keep an eye out for a hat she lost. We climb up through the overgrown part, where we follow the stream valley up, with numerous crossings of the shallow stream. I’m walking along when a thorn or something sharp pokes my wrist. It hurts and unsurprisingly, blood runs down the back of my hand. It dries in the next 10 minutes or so and when I wash the crusty blood off the back of my hand at the next stream crossing, it doesn’t start bleeding again. Soon after this, I find the lost hat along the trail. I pick it up with the plan to leave it at the Information Centre for Di to pick up. We reach the crest of the trail. We choose to take the short but steep side trail up German Hill. After much puffing, we’re rewarded with expansive views over Arrowtown and nearby Lake Hayes. It’s all downhill now; where at times the trail is quite steep, eroded and unstable. We’re pleased to see large plantings of beech trees; if successful they’ll reforest these steep slopes. Overall, I think we made the right decision to walk the loop in the counter-clockwise direction. We soon drop back down to the Arrow river and complete the loop. It was an enjoyable walk that was strenuous in parts but not that hard overall. We feel glad we walked it as we go into Arrowtown to find a late lunch.

Walking

The trail is marked but not overly so. Best to download a digital trail map from Alltrails or similar. I was surprised at the number of hikers we met with no maps that we had to coach on trail directions. The trail is quite exposed and sunny in the upper sections.

Arrowtown, New Zealand, South Island

Queenstown-Lakes District, Otago, New Zealand

time : Feb 26, 2025 11:02 AM

duration : 2h 18m 41s

distance : 7.6 km

total_ascent : 408 m

highest_point : 779 m

avg_speed : 3.3 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

We woke to fine day - time to go for another walk and enjoy the spectacular southern alps! Today, we took the bus to historic Arrowtown and go for a walk from there. The bus is a great deal to get from Queenstown to Arrowtown at $4pp and pleasingly there were heaps of people taking it with us. Today’s walk was the Sawpit Gully Loop Track. This isn’t the first time we’ve walked this track - perhaps the third time - but it is a lovely trail and bite-sized at 2-3 hrs. Perfect! Alltrails says it’s a moderate trail with around 7 kms and a 450m climb. Of course some say that’s more hard than moderate but it’s all relative. The trail starts as soon as you cross the picturesque Arrow River. Clear, fast running, stoney and tree-lined, it’s a gorgeous section to walk along. You don’t have to go too far and you can look down on the Ford of Bruinen - a location made famous in the first LotR movie where Arwen & Frodo cross the ford to escape the Nazgûls. The trail is up the hill from the Ford but you catch glimpses of it and can walk down to it on 4WD tracks if you wish. We soon start climbing, following along an overgrown stream valley between two high hills. We meet some walkers where one lady, Di, asks if we would keep an eye out for a hat she lost. We climb up through the overgrown part, where we follow the stream valley up, with numerous crossings of the shallow stream. I’m walking along when a thorn or something sharp pokes my wrist. It hurts and unsurprisingly, blood runs down the back of my hand. It dries in the next 10 minutes or so and when I wash the crusty blood off the back of my hand at the next stream crossing, it doesn’t start bleeding again. Soon after this, I find the lost hat along the trail. I pick it up with the plan to leave it at the Information Centre for Di to pick up. We reach the crest of the trail. We choose to take the short but steep side trail up German Hill. After much puffing, we’re rewarded with expansive views over Arrowtown and nearby Lake Hayes. It’s all downhill now; where at times the trail is quite steep, eroded and unstable. We’re pleased to see large plantings of beech trees; if successful they’ll reforest these steep slopes. Overall, I think we made the right decision to walk the loop in the counter-clockwise direction. We soon drop back down to the Arrow river and complete the loop. It was an enjoyable walk that was strenuous in parts but not that hard overall. We feel glad we walked it as we go into Arrowtown to find a late lunch.