Queenstown: The Ben Lomond

Another beautiful day! We decided to extend our stay in Queenstown to St. Paddy’s Day! Saturday was supposed to have gorgeous weather, and who really wants to sit on a bus and waste completely perfect blue skies? After hearing great things about the Ben Lomond track from Kate and Craig, we decided it was for us. Post trauma on the Queen Charlotte, we’re only up for day walks until further notice.

What a walk though! At 6 hours and 20 minutes return, it was quite an adventure! The first three hours were solid uphill – past the gondola, through some amazing beech and pine forests, out onto the saddle and finally up the steep hour-long walk to the tippy top of the summit. These pictures we’ve posted? They don’t do the steepness of the track justice. Our downhill experience was lovely, however.

Huffing and puffing our way up the mountain!

Reaching the summit was amazing. We had a 360-degree view of Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Southern Alps! Most Q-town visitors are offered a nice look at the city from the gondola platform…this was incredible and dwarfed that viewpoint. Definitely worth the climb. After a 10 minute rest, photo session and chocolate break, we headed back down to get meat pies for dinner as a reward. Coconut-curry chicken and lamb with kumara (sweet potato) finished off our evening! We attempted an obligatory St. Paddy’s Day visit into Q-town’s nightlife but were exhausted and sad to realize that everyone had already been drinking for hours and were past all points of polite, coherent conversation. Instead we turned in at 10:30pm like the college graduates we are.  

Our trail...doesn't look difficult, does it?

At the summit! Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu in the background.