Queenstown

Yesterday’s deliberate slow pace helped us recuperate to the point that we were restless for another adventure this morning. After waking to Skype home to wish Alex’s Mum a happy birthday (which was surreal with it being 9:00pm there when we were yet to have breakfast) we set out to hike Te Tapu-nui, a hill overlooking Queenstown with views across Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains. It’s meaning in Maori is ‘a mountain of intense sacredness’ but the first part of the climb was just bloody hard work. Even before reaching the Queenstown Hill Reserve upon which Te Tapu-nui sits, we walked across the village and worked our way up through the streets leading to the reserve’s entrance. Whilst we may have walked up the world’s steepest residential street in Dunedin, the streets we traversed here must be a very close second. We felt as if we were tilting at an almost 45 degree angle as our toes pressed into the ground before us. The psychological effect of this was to make us feel as if the hike would be too much but after a brief stop to catch our breath, we gritted our teeth and slogged on.

Fortunately once into the reserve, the track levelled somewhat but it was still a steep ascent of 500m to the ‘Basket of Dreams’, which spiritually links you as the walker with the mountain and the future. Our legs wobbled as they found their bearing on the track, we felt almost out of shape having not done any serious hiking since Franz Josef but we eventually found our stride. We moved up through silent pine forest where the damp smell of mud and wood hung. Cornering the switchback trail we came across a meadow of rock cairns of differing sizes left by those who came before us. Judging the progress of our ascent by the increasing sunlight and shrinking height of the pines around us we were soon out into the open, scrambling up the last piece of track before the iron woven sculpture of the ‘Basket of Dreams’. Resting on the cold moss speckled rocks we took in the view before us, contemplating the summit that still stood 400m behind. Although the beginning was hard we were now in our element and quickly moved on to get to the very top.

The wind blew around us as we left the cover of the pines and our boots squelched in the boggy flanks of the hillside. The track circled its way up to the summit and finally with nothing but blue sky cresting the pathway before us we made the summit. The wind rushed over us and all around us stood mountains whilst below lay Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. We basked in our achievement before beginning the steady descent back to our hostel, meeting Tom on the way down and encouraging him to keep going to the very top.Baca selengkapnya