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Hi again folks. Fresh on the back of my wander up to the top of Queenstown Hill last week, my days off this week were to be filled with a run of the Routeburn Track. However on Brain and Jeff’s return from their doing it reports of such a feat were not positive. In fact Jeff’s words were ‘…dude, that would be reallllly difficult, I’m not kidding..’, possibly with a bit more Anglo-Saxon included. Consequently the original plan was ditched and so I used my day off on Tuesday to find a more realistic activity. After a ponder around the local DOC (Dept. of Conservation) office in town, I finally decided on tackling Ben Lomand, a 1754m peak rising up to the left hand side of Queenstown. As I’m writing (the day after I did it) you can’t even see the gondola (where we did luging) which is only 500m or so due to the cloud and rain, so I was very lucky in the day I picked (had forced on me by Liquor King).
Before setting out on the Wednesday, Tuesday evening was therefore to be quiet and full of the relaxing things one should be doing before climbing
Karrimor takes a rest
carried him all the way to the top...lazy a mountain. However, after weeks of being too lame to go, I decided to trek to the open-mic night again at ‘Surreal’ in the town centre. As before my payment took the form of beer (again no great problem) and I got to play through a pretty prolonged set of my own songs, as well as being offered to play at an up and coming ‘show-case’ night (my hopes aren’t too high after speaking to the guy newly running it; he confided to me the only reason he was doing it all was for the women. After years of doing these things I let him know that he was probably to be disappointed). Anyway twas a good night, though slightly later than I would have liked. And I did get to run through my Pink Floyd medley now comprising of ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Breath’, ‘Time’, and ‘Comfortably Numb’.
So, to Wednesday morning and not waking up until 10am - woops. A start of between 8 and 9 was the goal but the free beer of the night before soon evaporated that. In fact I started to wonder whether to go, as it is a pretty big challenge, and
En the way up
puffing and blowing along no mean feat given the amount of snow that could be seen around the summit as I looked out. But, after a swift cup of tea (by the way mum thanks for the newly acquired Mile’s Somerset tea - so much better than the Kiwi nonsense over here) toast and hunks of cheese (what else matters) I set off first to town in search of provisions and a map. Cereal bars, apples and walking maps later I was off to the beginning off the track (actually the most mystifying part of the day as it seemed determined not to be found) at the base of the gondola port (11.20am). Slightly aggrieved at seeing all the tourists moving upwards in the cable cars, I was soon happy enough heading into alpine forest, spotting many wild red mushrooms (like you get cartoons of) and lots of Kiwi style walking tracks (read: mostly non-existent), and occasional random animals. Half and hour or so later (rather than the hour advertised in my guide map - good job too as I was starting fairly late for a supposed 8 hour return hike) I emerged from the forest to see Ben Lomand and the saddle linking
At Ben Lomand saddle
looking to Mount Aspiring Park it to an adjoining hill range. The hiking now was through amazing sub-alpine scrub, lots of wild flowers and the beginnings of a drop in temperature. This continued for 4km until I arrived at Ben Lomand’s saddle which had an oddly placed picnic bench and views to the far away Mount Aspiring national park.
Up until this point the walk had been pretty easy and although tempted to turn back I struck out for the final 300m climb (and it was a climb) to the summit. Also until now the recommended times had been very on the generous side, but from saddle to summit I was absolutely shattered, each step was an effort to the point where the one other hiker I saw (nice old German man with an uber white beard - respect) enquired into my well-being quite earnestly. Ensuring him I was not too bad, I plodded on into what he had told me was ‘…qvite a wery snowy summit avea..’ - nice. Sure enough half an hour later and just below the summit in got to said SNOW - ZING, and even ate some in honour of the sadly absent Claire. Finally reaching the summit had
SNOW
Just for you Claire a feeling of achievement and weariness, both of which gve way to awe at the views I now got of Queenstown (a tiny blip below), the Remarkables and Mount Aspiring. The peak isn’t the tallest by any means, but just to be nearly as high as those others was breathtaking. Luckily as you can see I got pictures right up till the summit, which was fortunate as literally as I finished taking the snaps I wanted my battery died. It did mean I didn’t get any shots on the way down, but this meant I was able to totally enjoy the walk and the views while listening to some music on my mp3 player (must be my new favorite walking gadget as everything look like it has a classy music video). The walk down I remember being especially good, the sun was directly behind me, but quite low, so I got a monstrous shadow of marc leaping out in front of me.
On reaching the upper gondola port I decided that summit completed it was time to relax slightly and so I took the gondola down (technically not cricket as I hadn’t paid, but I felt I’d earned it
SNOW
Just for you Claire and they never check the tickets for downward journeys). Also managed to resurrect the camera for one last shot of the cable car.
The whole kaboodle took 3.5 hours rather than the daunting 8 in the guide map. So I guess that bodes well for the Routeburn and Milford tracks which I will be doing in the near future I hope. They both classify as ‘Great Walks of New Zealand’ so should be ace. Capping off the day was a meal of pie and mash (oh I did feel like a man that evening), cheese melted on the pie top of course, and reasonably average NZ beer (it’s the best you can hope for here).
So after the joys of the walk up a mountain I’m now back in Liquor King for another 5 days until I’m released into the wilds of New Zealand again. Work incidentally, has turned to a total farce eclipsing any other job I’ve ever had for boredom and inactivity (that up against pretty stiff competition from Leeds Council as well). Counting down the days till I feel I’ve earned enough money to warrant handing in my notice, which I imagine won’t be too
trig
whatever that is! long. Mid June seems likely.
Anyway hope anyone who bothers to read the blog anymore is well, and ya boo to the rest of you.
Take care.
marc
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Top of a Mountain or Top Gear?
Duuude.....you need to get back to the uk, the new series of top gear has started!!! Sat and watched it complete with a Grove curry on sunday night.....oh and how i laughed. The highlight was where they decided to make a home made espace convertable using electric saws, some canvas and a few bits of plastic. Clarkson stiched his jacket to the canvass roof.....oh the hilarity. Once they had made this beast, as is top gears way, they had to complete a series of challenges. The last was to go through a car wash in it. 5 seconds into the car wash and the roof started to collpase, they were all soaked so ran out the espace. Then the rollers managed to get stuck in the car somehow causing the motor on the (brand new ) car wash to short and set on fire. The last shot was of the 3 of them running into the distance while the car wash alternatly burned and squirted water. Ace times, ace times.