After the biking, hiking and paddling it was road trip time before heading back to Auckland.
The first stop was Queenstown where I felt I deserved a post hike soak at Onsen Hot Pools and a slap-up mean at the waterfront.
Queenstown isn’t the type of town where you get the day off from outdoor adventures so it was time to get back on the bike and go exploring. I rented a gravel bike and am thinking for sure there is space in the garage for a new style of bike as it was a lot of fun. The hill called Sharp Rise or (C**T Hill had scratched on the sign) set me up for a stop for fish and chips and then a brewery before dropping off the bike.
For the final day in Queenstown it was time to get the hiking shoes back out and tackle Ben Lomond. I think the pictures say it all for this hike. Note the scenic outhouse toilet on the way up 🙂
After the slog up Ben Lomond it was time to unwind at the waterfront with some beers in the sun and then pickup some Lamb from the famous ‘Pedros Lamb’ (famous in NZ at least!).
I had fun in Queenstown but it is well known as the adrenaline capital of the South Island and my biking and hiking didn’t quite tick the adrenaline box but this was about to change when I drove to Wanaka and signed up for a Via Ferrata adventure!
Via Ferrata (iron path in Italian) is climbing whilst clipped in to steel cables, rungs and steps (with a waterfall thrown in!). There were three options on how long you want to keep climbing with the extreme one involving 450M of climbing and it was rated as hard with warnings on exposure. I was thinking how hard can it really be and I guess they have to big it up and should be fine……
Things got ‘interesting’ after the level 1 and 2 tour groups dropped off and hiked down and just myself, the guide and one other guy (also out of his depth like me) continued up, over, through, behind and finally above the waterfall. For the next couple of hours as we continued up with exposed overhangs and sheer drops I flip flopped from this is amazing to WTF!
The good news is if you sign up for the extreme tour you get picked up at the top and helicopter back down! It was a much much much quicker trip down than it was up.
The climbing and stress of the day certainly had me burn through some calories but not to worry that lamb dish from Pedros just kept on giving for multiple nights in the camper!
