Ben Lomond Track
Hello blog!
In this post, I’m taking you back in time to the first weekend back in Dunedin after mid-semester break. Unfortunately, I cannot write a blog post long enough to cover all of the amazing experiences my family had together over the break, but I can say that it was the absolute best vacation with the best travel buddies and the coolest experiences!! My one regret is that Grayson wasn’t there to travel along with us because it would have been even more fun with her there as well. But anyways, here’s some stories from two weekends ago:
The first week back from mid-semester break brought an intense desire to leave Dunedin once again. Not that I don’t love Dunedin or anything, butttt there’s so much to explore and so little time! Especially after the crazy-cool experiences my parents and I had traveling New Zealand, it seemed almost like a crime to stay put. However, my efforts to rally the troops for a weekend out of town was slightly unsuccessful given the amount of homework everyone had on their plates. Finally, I did manage to convince (my bestie) Grace to leave with me to go do these rad hikes near Queenstown and Wanaka. After acquiring permission to use the Polly Trolley for the weekend and booking the hostels, all the plans were in motion for an awesome weekend out of Dunedin.
On Friday, September 6, we left Dunedin at 2:30 to drive over to Queenstown and we arrived there at approximately 6pm. Next, we checked into our hostel (Absoloot Backpackers) and ventured out into town in search of dinner. Grace suggested we go to a place called The Cow because she’d eaten there before and it was ~amazing. We walk up to The Cow and of course it was totally packed. The hostess tells us that it’ll be a 25 minute wait and we agreed to wait inside by the bar. The two of us ordered some mulled wine while we waited and started chatting about how hungry we were and how imperative it was to order garlic bread as a starter. Apparently the bartender overheard our conversation, because she asked us if we wanted her to go ahead and put our orders into the kitchen. We were like, “heck yes that would be amazing” and we both ordered bowls of pasta (because carbs are good for hiking energy!!).
After sitting a little while longer, a waitress comes up and asks if we wanted to be seated now at a shared table, or wait 10 more minutes for our own table. We agreed to sit at the shared table and she consequently led us to a four-person booth where we were seated with a young married couple who happened to be Australian. We were so #blessed to be seated with them because they had me and Grace cracking up with laughter the entire night!! They were lovely to talk to and it seemed like the four of us were already old friends. They were such good sports to talk with us - two American, 20 year olds studying here in New Zealand. We could not have asked for a better pair to be seated with! At one point in the evening, we began talking about how Grace and I wanted to travel to either Bali or Australia, but couldn’t decide on which one. The Australian couple, it turns out, got married in Bali and travel there every year with their two small children to teach them to surf! Throughout the conversation, they THOROUGHLY convinced us that we needed to travel to Bali (fast-forward a week: me and Grace bought Bali tickets eeeeeppppp!!! SO EXCITED! Thank you Australians!!). Anyways, dinner came to a close and we sadly parted ways with our new friends and made our way back to our hostel. We both went to bed early in preparation for our hike in the morning and we each got a full night’s rest.
On Saturday, we woke up at 7am to go get breakfast and to move Polly to a free parking lot. We ate banana bread at a small cafe called Bespoke and it was very yummy. At around 9:30, we were at the trail head and ready to start Ben Lomond Track! The map at the base of the trail showed us our intended path and gave an estimated time of 8 hours to complete the entire thing. Me and Grace laughed and said “8 hours my ass! We can do this in 6 and a half, tops.” Ha. Ha. We were wrong.
The first leg of the hike took us under an hour to complete and was relatively steep, but not altogether too bad. We were feeling pretty cocky about how fast we had completed the first section and we were ready for the harder parts of the track. The next leg of the hike was a bit more challenging, especially because we switched off who had to carry the backpack and it was my turn (ugh).
About an hour into the second leg, we encountered what we thought was a bit of mud. It turns out that this mud covered the majority of the remaining track, leaving us hiking through the mud for the next 2 hours! My tramping shoes were completely covered with a thick layer of mud on the bottom, counteracting any traction that existed on the bottom of my shoe. It was extremely difficult to hike uphill on a track covered in a slippery surface and we were relieved to finish this portion of the hike. After we finally reached Ben Lomond Saddle (halfway point), we sat down for a quick rest and same snacks (it was around 12:30 at this point; 3 hours of hiking completed). At this checkpoint, the sign told us we had 1 hour of hiking left in order to reach the summit, which is bullsh*t because it actually took us double the estimated time! The final leg was the hardest portion - an intensely steep uphill climb that was marked only by orange poles every 50 yards up the rocky trek. About 40 minutes into this leg of Ben Lomond, the orange poles completed disappeared and left us to fend for ourselves. It was like the people marking the trail just gave up and went home lol.
In another hour’s time, we finally reached the peak!!!! Every hardship instantly melted away and it was all worth it. The views were absolutely breathtaking; pictures couldn’t possibly do it justice. Me and Grace sat down on a rock at the summit and took in the sights while we made PB&Js for lunch. After 5 hours of uphill hiking, this PB&J was the best thing I’ve ever tasted. We also ate the cookie butter that my amazing mom brought me from home (shoutout to Trader Joe’s) and it was the true icing on the cake to a great day.
After we took a sufficient amount of pictures from the top of Ben Lomond, we started to make our way back down. Although the uphill hike was painful, the downhill portion was arguably worse for the both of us. Three hours of downhill hiking (through the mud) is really hard on your knees as well as the balls of your feet. By the end of the hike, I was dying to walk on flat ground again! We reached the ground at 6pm, making our Ben Lomond journey about 8 and a half hours all together (technically longer than the anticipated time, but I’m convinced that the mud set us back at least an hour!).
After reaching the end of our hike on Ben Lomond Track, we were in desperate need of replenishment. Our desperation brought us to a nice asian restaurant where I had stir fried veggies and rice for dinner. For dessert, we went to Patagonia Ice Cream and each got large ice cream cones (don’t judge we needed replenishment!!). After ice cream, I popped two Advil and got back into Polly for the hour drive over to Wanaka for our next hike on Sunday.
We reached our hostel in Wanaka (Base Backpackers) at around 9pm and immediately showered and got ready for bed. I’m pretty sure both of us were zonked by 10pm. Oof.
On Sunday, we woke up at 8am for breakfast and quickly realized that another hike was not in the cards for us. For one, our bodies were still recovering from the day before AND the weather was complete shit. It was cold, rainy and windy - not weather worth hiking in. Instead of getting ready for the Roy’s Peak hike, we ate a leisurely breakfast in town and brainstormed what to do with our day.
Ultimately, we decided to go hit up a winery that we heard gave free tastings, see the famous Wanaka tree and then make our way to Blue Pools walk. The winery was thoroughly underwhelming compared to the places my parents and I visited in Marlborough and Martinborough. In addition, their wine tasted like water which was very disappointing.
After leaving the winery, we stopped to see the famous #thatwanakatree because its too iconic to pass up. We snapped some pics and looked at the tree and then proceeded back to our trusty gal Polly and made our way to the Blue Pools walk.
Compared to Ben Lomond, this was an absolute cake walk. It took us only 15 minutes to reach the Blue Pools from where we parked Polly! After arriving at our destination, we enjoyed our lunch of PB&Js and chatted while we took in the beauty of the Blue Pools. As we were talking, we marveled at how cold the water looked and how crazy it would be to jump in (you see where this is headed im sure). Eventually we convince ourselves to jump in the ice cold mountain water of the New Zealand Blue Pools. Grace ended up chickening out due to the fact that jumping in required us to strip in front of a bunch of other tourists. Even though Grace decided not to do it, I made up my mind to risk it all and strip down in front of some very surprised Asian people who did not speak english. I jumped in the water and all I have to say is: Jack from Titanic was absolutely correct when we says that the water hits you like a thousand knives. It was so so so so so cold!!!! Immediately after jumping in, I scrambled to get out as fast as I could and quickly got dressed. The Asian tourists watched as Grace laughed her ass off and I looked like an total freak with soaking clothes doing jumping jacks to warm myself up. Even though I almost got hypothermia, I’m glad I jumped in the pools!! It was definitely an experience that me, Grace and those Asian tourists will never forget.
We walked back to Polly and I put some dry clothes on for the car ride home. We left the pools around 3pm and arrived back in Dunedin at 6:30ish after a nice drive with some good tunes.
Overall, a rewarding weekend filled with random surprises and epic views.
Thanks for reading :)
