Ben Lomond, or "Reasons this place sucks #2173"

After a nice breakfast at home on Thursday, I headed with a daypack over to the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown. It heads from town up into the mountains, about 1500 vertical feet up. Up top, there's an overpriced restaurant, a luge track, a bungee operation, and a paraglide launch, as well as a couple of trailheads.
The trail (ok, "track") for Ben Lomond, just over 6000', is listed as a 5 1/2 hour return, so I figured that would make a good day before work.
A round trip on the gondola is 21NZD, but they have a year-long pass for 59NZD. One obvious decision later, I'm the proud owner of a year pass. It's an awfully nice view to go check out after work, etc.
Here's the view of downtown Queenstown from the top of the gondola:



And here's a view out over Wakatipu from the top of the gondola (click the thumbnail for a large version):



I had no idea how much of a hike I was in for, as I didn't even know at the time how tall Ben Lomond was.

Here was my first good view of the peak:



And another quick panorama of Wakatipu as I neared the saddle (click for larger):



I got to the saddle and was greeted by breathtaking views to the north and the west. As the crow flies, Queenstown is very close to Milford Sound, but it's a long trip by car. These mountains to the north and the west are in the vicinity of Milford Sound.


(view north)


(view west)

After the saddle, the track turns sharply up, and it's a good grunt up to the summit. It was quite windy on the exposed northern face, too.

The grunt was well worth it. Here are two shoddy panoramas from the top, one over Wakatipu and the other looking north and west (click both for larger).





And a self-portrait, an hour and 10 minutes and some 3200 vertical feet after I stepped off the gondola:



The trip down was equally quick, although I started feeling some familiar sensations in my legs, reminding me that the race was only 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Sure enough, 2 days later, my quads hurt like hell and I'll be keen to be able to hobble around a little better tomorrow.

The shots to the north and the west are a good indicator of how quickly uninhabited parts of this island can be reached. A mere hour or so out of town...not too shabby!

Movember

No, that's not a typo. MOvember is a full month dedicated to awareness of prostate health through the glorification of the oft-maligned mustache. I got here mid-month, but diligently did not shave my upper lip after my arrival. It's now December, so I will be bidding adieu shortly to my best-ever attempt at facial hair.

The great thing now is all the Movember parties that are happening; competitions and all. Nearly all of the Mos floating around are truly heinous, and they're meant to be. I should have been snapping pics on the street of the better ones, but I didn't, so a link will have to suffice:

Some Mos

And for some background:

Wikipedia

People take it pretty seriously, as the "winners" get new cars.

The Mo prize categories at the party at Monty's last night for a local construction company (near 100% participation) were the No-Go-Mo (I'm firmly in this category), the Ho-Mo (Village People style), the #1-Bro-with-the-Mo (best all-around), and another that I don't remember.

Here's my no-go-mo:

Pics of the new pad

Here it is:


(entry)


(my room)


(living room/dining room/lounge etc.)


(our balcony from below and the whole place)


(and last, but not least, our view)

Contact info update!

Good news! I am no longer homeless!
I called the rental office when I woke up this morning, we got the go-ahead, and we spent the rest of the day moving in and checking our place out.
Pictures will follow, but a couple cool details are that it's heated entirely by underfloor heating in the main areas and undertile heating in the bathrooms.

Address:

Eliot Drake
13-96 Frankton Road
Queenstown, Otago 9300, New Zealand


(had to look up the zip code. they're not exactly a big thing here yet.)

A trip around the South Island

My friends Jesse and Lisa are in New Zealand right now on their honeymoon, and they graciously decided to put up with me for a couple days while we went on a whirlwind tour of the South Island by car. They had already spent 4 days on the Milford Track and a few days in Queenstown, so it was time to explore. These photos are over a three day period:


(between Queenstown and Wanaka in the Crown Range)





(Wanaka)






(Blue Pools)


(Knight's Point on the west coast. Next one too.)






(At Fox Glacier. Last stop for the first day before bedding down at Franz Josef Glacier. Walking up to the terminal face is like walking into a meat locker...chilly.)


(Also at Fox)


(Also at Fox. The deep blue in the clouds at the right side of the image was remarkable. We couldn't figure out what caused it but it was striking.)


(This and the next five are from Franz Josef Glacier. Socked in by clouds, too, but that didn't detract from the glacier's dramatic presence.)












(Back to the coast near Greymouth)


(Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road here, but most rural bridges are one lane with signs indicating right-of-way. Even better, some of them are shared with a train. The train gets right-of-way...)


(A tasty treat)




(Part of the panorama from the Mt. John observatory. We're on our way to the east coast now after crossing the gorgeous Arthur's Pass area. Will revisit that part of the island on my bike.)


(A couple of shots from the surreal Lake Pukaki. The most amazing aquamarine lake...)



That's all for now!

A quick introduction to working life in Queenstown

So I have a job working at Monty's bar in Queenstown. It's a cool joint, a pretty quality establishment, and the food is off the hook.
It was slow last night so I had a few minutes to play around with my camera.
Here it is:

Contact info

So I've got an operating phone here in NZ. +6421823331. Works for calls and txts.

No mailing address yet but should have it soon...