Day 62/72: Ben Lomond

We went into town and picked up some croissants and baguettes from a famous bakery. Actually the bakery itself isn't famous but its part of a chain with a very famous burger place. The food was good anyway.

We walked straight to the start of a small cable car which takes you to the start of a walk up Ben Lomond, passing Noel Edmunds (which Tom was very excited about). Having never watched deal or no deal the excitement was slightly lost on me, and the following 45 minutes of googling his entire life story and whether we had really seen his wife and son or not was slightly tedious.

We started our watches and began the long walk up. The first part was hard work, but lovely paths through forests. Then we got out into the side of the mountain, and there was no shelter from the burning hot sun. The walk got steeper, and soon we we scrambling on our feet and hands up the gravelly path, with steep drops to either side. The walk up took a long time, but the views from the top were incredible! Queenstown and lake Whakitipu was on one side, and on the other a huge mountain range with snow capped peaks as far as the eye could see.

The scramble back down was less than fun, and took longer than the walk up. We were so hot, and had nearly finished all the water in our bags when the cable car came back into view, and we sat there with 2 random other people, who had probably had a nice coffee at the cafe and enjoyed the view, instead of climbing up a mountain, feeling very bad about how sweaty we must have smelt.

When we got back to the car we drove to stock up on food, then out into the countryside to Te Anau Lake, our next campsite and the base of our trip to Milford Sound.Read more