By Liz

13th March

Queenstown rams excitement and adrenaline pumped activities down your throat the moment you arrive. All of the billboards are screaming ‘give me a go!’ And it all seems a bit too technicolour and too crazy and too expensive for us to embrace, so we ignored it, and went on a hike instead.

Day off the bike, casual 1000m elevation climb, Mount Ben Lomond conquered! And it was all by accident.

Initially we only intended to do the Luge. This is a race car ride in go carts down the mountain side. You get a ride on the skyline gondola up the side of the mountain and 5 rides on the luge for $60! Whatta bargain. We had a merry time racing, so much so we got a lady’s ticket for an extra go at the bottom because we had been whooping so loudly!

After all the excitement we had looked up some short walks and to get to the saddle of Mt Ben Lomond was only an hour and a half return walk, so – easy, let’s do it.

The track was as you might expect, largely uphill. And getting muddy by the intermittent rainfall. But when we reached the saddle the summit didn’t seem that far, so onwards and upwards! We had stopped at the bench for some nuts with another guy, he was in trainers and said it wasn’t so bad. ‘A little rocky where you have to scramble but it’s only short’. I should always disbelieve people when they say it’s not so bad.. the scramble over the rocks was steep, but yes, short. I had a panic but Andy, my solid rock, was there to coax me up!

The cloud came in for the descent but I had found a stick. So the way down became easy.

Our knees were quite tender after that epic climb. Am so happy I made it to the top though! My own personal sky dive triumph. Free, as well.