Mountain climbing, 18th

My last full day in Queenstown, I wanted to get the gondola up the side of the mountain at some point, so that had to be today! It was a very steep incline, to a cafe and restaurant complex at the top that also offers various things like bungee jumping, mountain biking and a luge track (sort of downhill engineless go karts i suppose!) but first things first, I set off on my way up Ben Lomond (and you might be forgiven for thinking it was in Scotland, although taller than Ben Nevis- Nevis is 1344m and Lomond is 1748m. The Gondola gets you up to 812m though, which made it seem less!) I hired some crampons and an ice axe from a shop in town as it looked rather snowy... Although it turns out the track takes you just beyond the ridgeline that is visible from town, and on that side there's hardly any snow at all! This might have been disappointing, except that the snow was all getting soft, and the couple of places I did have to go through it, it was very slushy, and would collapse in where the underneath had melted away. If there had been snow all the way up I think I would have aborted the mission, as it would have been too dangerous. The weather was a little changeable, as was predicted, so I was armed with all the warm and waterproof options I had, plus map and compass. On the way up it varied from snow, to sun, to fog and rain. There was a little while where thick clouds were all corralled on one side of the mountain, and the other was perfectly clear. I didn't get a very good view from right at the top, but saw enough to feel satisfied with views on offer! it was amazing to get a glimpse of the other side, around here it's snowy mountains as far as the eye can see, and just when you think there can't possibly be any more, there are. Lots of the mountains are very traditional toblerone style pointy ones, which is good.

After making my muddy way back to the gondola station, I treated myself to a hot chocolate and a crepe, and was considering a go on the luge when the rain kicked in again...and it's still going now, hours later! So I gave that a miss and returned for a shower instead. Might venture into town tonight, there's a bar made out of ice apparently, which sounds interesting, and might be worth a little nosey at! Then again, it's nice and warm here! I'll see how I feel after dinner :-)