GREENSTONE CAPLES TRACK TRANSPORT

Figuring out your Greenstone Caples Track transport is something you need to consider while planning your hike.

Why? It’s a remote trailhead, with minimal traffic and involves ~20km of gravel roads. You can’t exactly wing this.

In theory, you can start the Greenstone Caples Track from the Greenstone car park or The Divide…but this article will only focus on transport options to Greenstone Car Park. A big majority of people start the Greenstone Caples loop from the Greenstone car park.

If you want to start at the Divide you can check out this post on Routeburn Track Transport.

Having completed the track and spoken with many others who have, I’ll go through your Greenstone Caples Track transport options. There’s only a few to choose from 🙂

THE GREENSTONE CAPLES TRACK TRANSPORT OPTIONS

1. Self-Drive
2. Buses/Shuttles
3. Hitchhiking

1. SELF DRIVE

The drive out to the Caples Greenstone Track is the most popular way for people to get to the trailhead. But most people are surprised at how long the drive takes to get there from both Queenstown and Glenorchy.

From Queenstown to the Greenstone Carpark, it’s 86km but you should factor in at least 90 minutes for the drive..,potentially 2 hours. The Glenorchy Scenic Drive and Kinloch Road drive times can vary a lot.

From Glenorchy it’s 36km to the trailhead, but it’s the last 20km or so once you get onto Kinloch Road that can slow things down. It’s a gravel road and there are 3 ford to cross.

The majority of the time all cars, 2WD and 4WD can get through the fords easily, but if there’s been heavy rain recently…you may not want to take your 2WD through there…check with DOC before you go.

There’s plenty of parking available at Greenstone car park, and I’ve never heard of anyone have issues with breaking etc.

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2. BUS/SHUTTLES

If you don’t fancy driving, there’s a shuttle/bus option from both Glenorchy and Queenstown to the Greenstone Caples trailhead.

In the summer there’s a bus operating most days, but in the winter you may need to have a flexible schedule as they’ll only run if they meet a minimum number of people.

There are two companies offering services that I found at the time of writing, Glenorchy Journeys and Info Track.

At the time of writing this post (early Jan 2022), the prices for both companies were:

• From Queenstown: $60 adults/$40 children
• From Glenorchy: $35 adults/$20 children

Note: If you’re staying in Kinloch the night before/after hiking the track, you can get transport from Kinloch to Greenstone (~11km) with Kinloch Lodge from $22 per person.

There’s more track transport shuttles here.

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3. HITCHHIKING

You can hitchhike to the Greenstone Caples Track, which is how I got there and it was easy…on the way there. On the return, it wasn’t so easy.

In winter not that many people are heading to the Greenstone Carpark…I reckon there are days where there would be no going to the car park. So if you are going to hike this track in winter, start hitchhiking to/from the car park as early as possible.

In the summer (let’s go with December towards), provided you go before mid-afternoon, you should be sweet to get a ride out there.

Hitchhiking from Queenstown is easy, but it may take you a few rides to get to the Greenstone car park. The same goes with the journey from Glenorchy, but once you get to the start of Kinloch Road you shouldn’t need to wait long for a lift.

If you’re planning to hitch out from the car park, don’t leave it too late otherwise you might not see any traffic leaving and the 11km walk to Kinloch for accommodation isn’t ideal (there’s a YHA in Kinloch a.k.a. Kinloch Wilderness Retreat).

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I hope this has helped you figure out your Greenstone Caples Track transport options. If you’ve got any other questions about the track, leave a comment below or email jub@churnewzealand.com, I’m happy to help.

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