Moke Loop

Looking North from Sefferstown

Starting the descent on the Moonlight Track

This fairly straight forward loop from Queenstown turned into a bit of an epic after I lost the track. No real harm was done and the peace and quite (so near to the bussel of NZ's adventure capital) and some great moountain trails compensated.

From Queenstown I followed the road southwest around the lake before turning right onto the Lake Moke road. As this gravel road climbed, the weather slowly improved. The light rain stopped and the clouds started to lift to reveal the surrounding jagged mountains.

I took the long way round the lake on some primo singletrack before contunuing up the valley on a private farm road, which I had gained permission to use. Shortly the track descended to Moke Creek before climbing for one last time past the farm buildings at Sefferstown.

At the start of the Moonlight Track I had my lunch whilst looking forward to the singletrack descent to follow. After a couple of ks of narrow challenging riding the track disappeared into some very thorny bushes. I hunted around for a better trail for a while but couldn't find anything so I tried to follow the vague track through the dense undergrowth. Occasional sheep trails fooled me into thinking that I was going to the right way but all the while the hillside I was contouring around, above the fast flowing Shotover River, was becoming steeper and steeper. This would be extremely difficult terrain to cover in walking boots, but in my rapidly disintegrating cycling shoes and carrying a bike it was next to impossible. After 3 hours of being scratched, sweating and swearing I had runn out of food and water (it was now very hot) and had covered less than 2km.

Upon reaching one final cliff face I was finally convinced that the path must be somewhere above me so I threw my bike over a gulley dense with gorse and then scraped my way through. Eventually, and with much relief I reached a much better track and I actually ride my bike for sections.

Within 200 metres this track joined a higher, better track which was obviously the Moonlight Track that I should have been on all along. Round the next corner I caught up with a couple of walkers who had also lost the track at one point, but nowhere nearly as badly as I had.

Having finally found the correct trail it proved to be great fun and all too soon I reached tarmac at Arthurs Point. I refuelled at the hotel and then continued the descent on the road back to Queenstown.

A large part of me wants to go back and find the correct track. However I suspect the risk of undergoing the same ordeal will deter me.

Posted: 08/01/07