Queenstown Hill Walkway

hiking is an activity which allows you to save money whilst enjoying sights, and exercising of course. this walk is considered 'easy' and normally it takes 1.5-2.5 hours return, but we took about 5 hours, since it's winter, so the mountains and its tracks are covered with snow. the snow isn't the nice powdery 'soft' snow you would normally get at a ski field, but this snow is like ice, and once it starts melting, it's very slippery and watery, hence you don't have any grip to walk on the snow properly. also walking through clouds which was a new experience, but luckily it didn't rain.

not even the bottom of the hill....just trying to show the super, super steep streets. how to people even dive up those streets? probably can't see, but that's the town down there

right near the beginning of the track we were faced with our first obstacle-snow. we were actually thinking of turning back around. even though my boots were snow boots, it was still a bit slippery. so we pondered for a while. then a guy came walking up by himself in canvas shoes! i asked him if it was slippery and then he realised, 'oh yeah, it is slippery' but hiking in canvas shoes? so we were determined to make it to the top.

people have too much time stacking rocks

into the forest

first half is going through forest. past quite a lot of people. some by themselves, families, couples. my mum was worried that we were going to be the only ones hiking. but this mountain isn't a hole since it still has reception (:

so steep

this part to the very top normally takes 15mins, but we took half an hour. most people make it to the "Bastket of Dream," so the first major view point, and then walk back down, but i was determined to make that extra effort to go all the way up there. also say this girl w/ her bf, and all she had on was a tank top and hiking with a broken arm in a sling! well they looked like seasonal hikers, but when she was coming down this slope, she kind of has to slide down...

you see the foot prints in the snow, but that was earlier in the morning when it was still cold and the snow was a lot thicker. my mum and i decided to walk on the sides of the path where there is some vegetation, so more grip. but the problem is that you can't see any dips/holes on the ground. my mum found a stick here (surprisingly almost every pair has a really good branch to hike with..), so she poked in front of me to see if it was a ditch. at some parts, i was crawling on all fours because it was THAT STEEP. so glad i brought my snow gloves with me.

i actually didn't wear a lot, only two layers: jacket and thermals. it's a relatively colder at the bottom of the mountain, where there is also wind.

but after a looong time, we made it! :') 360 degree views. could see the lake for miles, and mountains a allll around. photos doesn't do the views any justice (some people actually brought along their dslr to hike). only my mother would do these crazy things with me. my dad would be ceebs, and my brother would be like hiking is boring, and would go do more adrenaline things, even if it costs a lot.

in the middle of the colds!

the guy in canvas shoes was waiting up here for us, obviously waiting for his photo to be taken. he probably waited over 15mins for us to reach him at the top...turns out he is a fellow aussie, but from melb and travelling alone. the we got photos taken by him, but not on my phone, hence no pics here...his shoes were starting to get soaked when we first saw him, but at the top he was soaked ankle deep.

clouds covering mountains behind, but they were spectacular!

sun's out-photo time!

scarf to add some colour to the photo, hehe

the snow here wasn't very "playable," not powdery, but i did try to attempt to build a snowman...

yaayyy. 

started from the bottom and now we're here

the last which part of the track is from the photo before. can't even see the forest beyond that since it's a long way from this point, and it's too steep to see.

missing these breathtaking views already

it's ok, when i'm older and have money to spend, there will be equally spectacular views in other parts of the world

view behind me

walking back down is harder than going up

going back down

new zealand trees are nothing like Australia's. they're more pine-ish like trees, similar to america. the leaves aren't slippery if they were like our gum tree leaves, we would be slipping constantly due to the leaves.

trees are so dense.

hiking to the top of a mountain-been there, done that (: