Helen and Tim: Queenstown and Glenorchy

Thursday 15 January 2009

Queenstown and Glenorchy

After a few days pottering in a showery Queenstown, managing a few sessions cragging locally, we finally had a spell of good weather forecast so headed up the valley to Glenorchy! We mananged to get some elusive last minute hut tickets for a hut on the famous Routeburn track so did two days in one to get to the Lake Mackenzie Hut (that we got to from the other end a week before and still managed to get there by 15:00). We returned to the road end the following day by the unmarked Emily's Pass, involving a dry creek scramble, steep scree and tussock and descending down a stream - extreme NZ tramping!

Without a break we spent the next day doing the classic 'Ravages of Time' on Chinaman's Bluff - a 300m route up the side of the incredibly scenic Dart Valley. We got back to the van around 21:30 so it was a pretty long day!

We allowed ourselves a rest day around Queenstown, enjoying the luxury of some non-campstove food before returning back up to The Remarkables overlooking Queenstown. On our first day we did The Grand Traverse of Double and Single Cone - a fantastic alpine ridge scramble with 2000m of exposure beneath us all the way down to Lake Wakatipu. On the second day, we dragged ourselves back up to Lake Alta and the scree slopes above to do a long multipitch route on the NE face of Double Cone (though abbing off after the difficulties as we had already ticked the summit the day before).

And now we're back in Queenstown watching the rain, having some much needed rest, keeping an eye on the weather forecast and planning what to do next.