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January 2025 (Part 15)

New Zealand Trip - Day Fourteen: Queenstown and Don Lomond

The boys headed out the next morning for a hike, headed first to the Queenstown Skyline for a ride uphill on the gondola.   Nancy's knee was still swollen and sore from the hike in Franz Josef, so she opted to stay behind and do some much needed laundry.  But she was monitoring them with the Find My Phone app.

The route left the top of the gondola and Bob's Peak to go up to a saddle between Bon Lomond peak and an unnamed peak next to it.  Here is Andy at the top of the gondola, and fun image made from jelly-beans.

Steve stopped to take pictures on the way up, as much to record the amazing view and scenery as to take a short break from the grueling uphill.  Beautiful looking back toward Queenstown and Laka Wakatipu and just up the valley with Ben Lomond peak to the left/west side.

Once we had ascended far enough, we could see to the east past Bob's Peak.

We finally made it to the saddle and a lunch break.  It was a bit windier and cooler, so we all put on a layer.

Here are some images from David taken at the saddle.

Time to head back down for two of us.  Given the option of continuing, David joked that he was ready to turn around three miles ago.  Andy was naturally rearing to go to summit the peak.  The trail clearly only got steeper from the saddle.  Fortunately there was enough people around to ensure he had company if anything happened.  Some images of Andy headed up to the peak.  We didn't leave until he was out of sight.

Some para-gliders taking off from Bob's Peak as we downloaded the gondola.

Time to sit and relax on the balcony and wait for Andy to get back.  A well earned dinner for all that evening.

Here are Andy's images from his successful trip to the summit.

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