Journal

Beautiful Queenstown! (Day 5) 24 February 2006

What a beautiful day – shirtsleeve weather, beautiful!!

I had planned to take the gondola to the top of one of the mountains just above the city, but when I got to the gondola terminal, I noticed a couple of hikers headed off on a trail, and realized that there is a trail to the top! I had been thinking I need to keep my legs in shape for the Milford Track tomorrow, so this was perfect. It turned out to be more than adequate for this purpose! It was **VERY** steep, and in my sneakers, was quite challenging, but beautiful. It was very like nearing the top of the trail above Bear Lake in Colorado, where the trail gets steeper and rockier. There were many spots where I had to pull myself up using branches and rocks.

Just after I started out, I was taking a photo of the trail behind me, and an older fellow was there, who took his hat off to me, and we ended up hiking and chatting the whole way. His name was Ron, and he is from the Vancouver Islands – traveling alone, because his wife has already been here, and was not interested in the long flight again! They had different interests, so he figured he’d get this out of his system! (Sound familiar? :)) Anyway, it was spectacular, both the hike up over 2000 feet, and the view from the top.

I will meet up with Karen and Phil in about 30 minutes, and we leave on the Milford Track in the morning, so this will likely be my last post until next Thursday – cheers!!!