Lake Rere Loop Track

From the Greenstone carpark, cross the bridge and follow the marked route across Greenstone Station paddocks for roughly an hour with easy walking and wide views toward the Richardson Mountains. A short, steep drop reaches Elfin Bay on Lake Wakatipu, the old steamer landing for 19th-century day-trippers (once called Sandfly Bay). From the bay, an initially steep climb through red beech beside a lively stream with waterfalls and boulders reaches Lake Rere. The lake's west end opens to grass—an ideal picnic spot on a warm day, with Tooth Peak visible to the south. Continue west and down through pasture, scrub and forest, cross the rocky stream, and take care at the large active slip near Stock Bridge. Finish by following the Greenstone River, crossing the required bridges to join the Greenstone Track through beech forest ravines and waterfalls, then return to the start of the Lake Rere Walk and carpark.

Moderate overall because of the distance, steep sections, unbridged streams, farmland, and active slip. The track can be muddy and rooty, and streams become hazardous after heavy rain. Stock may be on the paddocks. Sandflies can be persistent at lake and river level—take repellent and consider breaks in shaded forest.

Lake Rere and Elfin Bay were popular late-19th-century picnic destinations, reached by steamboat from Queenstown. Some of today's benched sections echo early tourist routes and shelved ambitions for a road up the Greenstone Valley toward Milford.

You will walk through red and mountain beech with South Island birdlife, including tomtit, fantail, rifleman, brown creeper, and South Island robin. The Queenstown-Lakes landscape is dominated by schist shaped by ice and rivers, with valley floors mantled by younger gravels and tills.

Access is via Glenorchy–Paradise Road, Kinloch Road, then the gravel Greenstone Station Road to the Greenstone carpark, about an hour from Glenorchy. The final stretch includes several fords and may be impassable after rain. Carry layers, sturdy waterproof footwear, poles for stability in streams, and a way to treat water. Respect farm etiquette—stick to markers and leave gates as you find them.