What a brilliant decision to stay in Wanaka another day! I went for tea with my friends before they left to catch the bus, then did some research on a good way to spend the day wearing myself out. Tim and the people I spoke to in the information centre had recommended that I do the popular Rob Roy Track - a 10km track with views of glaciers and waterfalls. The only problem was that its out of town and apparently costs 70 dollars each way for the shuttle! What a rip off! Besides, I had missed this morning's shuttle by then.
Luckily though, I bumped into a guy cleaning my hostel room who mentioned that there is a good track (although he has yet to do it himself...) that is accessible from town - Roy's Peak Track. Now that sounded more like it! The guide said that it is tough but the views are worth it. Roy's Peak is the biggest mountain near to Wanaka, at 1578m above sea level (Wanaka is at 290m).
It sounded like quite a big climb but he showed me where it starts on the map - just a short scenic walk around the edge of the lake should take me to the car park.
So, I gathered all my gear, put on my running shoes and headed out into the midday heat - its 30 degrees again, bad timing! Great blue skies though...
It turned out to be a good 5 mile run to the car park at the base of the track - I could have just run back to the hostel again and that would have been good exercise for the day... No chance!
Next followed a continuous, uphill climb on a wide grassy track. The views as I was getting higher literally took my breath away - I was shaking my head in disbelief! What I love so much about this area is how much it reminds me of Beaufortain, where I worked in the French Alps, but just even more beautiful. Every time I looked out, there'd be a spectacular vista of lakes and mountains. It was so wonderful that I barely noticed the long, steep uphill climb in the heat.
It took one hour and a half of continuous climbing to reach the summit from the car park, and it seemed such a small price to pay for such ridiculous, magnificent views. It was perfectly clear and I could see for miles. I felt like I was on top of the world and I was genuinely so excited to be experiencing something so magical, I just didn't want to come down! The pictures I took are good, but you could never really capture the magic of it, I'm still buzzing and in awe.
It only took 40 minutes to run back down to the car park - it's a wonderful, long, grassy descent, one of Dad's favourites. So sorry to make you jealous Dad, but I would have given anything to have had you there doing this adventure with me! I was so sad just thinking about how much you would have loved it!
As I got nearer to the bottom again, I really started to feel the heat. It was like someone blasting a giant hair dryer at me. As a result, the remaining 5 mile run back round the lake was seriously hard work, I was so hot and dehydrated and there was literally no shade to be found.
19 miles and 1300m climb later, I finally made it back to the hostel, exhausted and hot, but on such a high! I'd booked the perfect way to spend my evening following the exertion: I went to the quirky, independent cinema across the road and sank into my own, big, comfy armchair to enjoy the new Les Miserables. What an epic film! They even have intervals at the cinema here so I'd prebooked my dinner and it was there ready for me at half time, pretty neat eh!