Day Six ... Our hike begins

Hello. Ian here. I have offered to help Jacqui out by doing a guest spot on the blog for Day 6 - the commencement of our 7 day hiking trip which starts with a tough hike up to Ben Lomond Saddle above Queenstown. 

It was a restless broken sleep, anxious anticipation bordering on trepidation for the trails, trials and tribulations that awaited us - at the breakfast buffet, let alone the mountainous climb. We woke, we rose, we ...

Oh for goodness sake ... give me that.

I'm back, having wrestled my iPad away from Ian. 

Today we began our 7 day hike of some of the best trails in the Southlands of New Zealand. If you want to see what our itinerary looks like here is the link - https://worldexpeditions.com/New-Zealand/Trekking-Walking/Fiordland-Hollyford-and-Stewart-Island-Trails. Today, as Ian has already explained, was to hike to the Ben Lomond Saddle. We had breakfast at the hotel before meeting the group so were ready to go well fueled for the adventure ahead. We met our group in the lobby of our hotel. There are six of us in the group plus our guide Rich. Rich is young, fit and enthusiastic and a wealth of knowledge. So after a quick briefing we were ready to get started. 

The first part of the journey was easy ... a simple walk to the bottom of the gondola, and then a wonderful ride to the top. The gondola moves fairly fast and is on a massive incline up the side of the mountain, rising 450m in total. The view from the gondola car is fabulous ... looking out over Queenstown. Sadly, the ride is short so you don’t get a great deal of time to truly enjoy it. It may also have been because we were talking so missed the chance to just look out. Luckily for us we will be back again after the hike.





Once we had picked up some food for our lunch (which we would eat later) we then began the hike itself which was an 8 km round trip. I think it is safe to say that the hike was pretty tough. The path we walked on was good but we walked from an elevation of 480m to 1326m ... so a rise of 846m over that 4 km. Ian tells me that this is the equivalent of walking up 4926 standard steps. The walk to the Saddle took us about 2 and a half hours through varying terrain - pine forest, beech forest, open moors, rocky knolls, switchbacks and narrow passes with steep drops on both sides. And there are crazynuts riding their mountain bikes up and down their parallel trails. Once at the top though the view was incredible. Looking up towards the Ben Lomond Peak to our right and Mt Bowen to our left. In front was a glorious vista of Ben Lomond station (a 13,300 ha Merino sheep farm) and the peaks topped with snow.



















J


We sat and had a pleasant lunch at the top, enjoying the vista. Kooky and Womby became instant stars with a young family and their baby daughter. The mother was from Perth and so little Freya is half Australian. We paused so the dad could take photos of mum and Freya with our furry friends. Sadly I wasn’t thinking and I missed snapping a photo myself.

And so then the downward hike, which because it was downhill was quicker with the group covering the distance in just an hour and a half. I can’t say the downward hike was any easier. The incline was still the same and it was easy to slip on the scree as you walked. But we made it … Ian was a true champion as he made the entire trek with no complaints (unlike me) despite his ankle soreness.

Back at the gondola we travelled down to our mini bus, loaded up and Rich drove the 2 and a half hour drive to Invercargill providing fabulous commentary along the way. The journey had us hugging Lake Wakitipu and skirting the Remarkables (massive mountains that are the ski fields in winter), through small towns, lush farming and grazing land and depositing us safely to our hotel for the evening. I think the group were happy to be able to have a nice cool shower, wash off all the dust and freshen up before dinner.




Dinner was a group affair at a local restaurant which was thankfully just across the road from our hotel so we didn’t need to hike too far 🤣. Tomorrow we are heading off to Stewart Island … the most southern part of New Zealand (but more on that tomorrow).

Today’s tally …

Photos … 110

Steps walked … 20,004

Kms walked … 15.76km

Ad Labs completed … 0

Trails hiked … 1

Comments

  1. PamJanuary 21, 2023 at 2:11 AM

    Haha give me that! You two are adorable!! Another fabulous day lived vicariously through you!! Thank you for sharing!!

    ReplyDelete

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