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Five silly Queenstown girls decided that it was time to get in shape and the best way to do that would be to hike up a mountain. The five included two English, one Scottish, one French and one American who were all experienced, even if lately lazy, hikers. There were two hairdressers, one chef, one waitress, and one hopefully some day to be employed so that she will be able to continue to pay the bills girl. The plan was simple. All were supposed to meet at 10am at Morven’s cabin near the base of the trail to begin the day. The text messaging began around 9:15am with everyone having an excuse for why 10am just wasn’t going to work. Mine happened to be that the washing machine that contained my only towel and only set of sheets was taking longer than expected and if I didn’t put them out on the line to dry before we left for the hike they would never be dry before I needed to use them that night. Even so, I was only 15 minutes late and the first to arrive at the cabin. After another half an hour of waiting, Morven and I decided to walk up to Jayne and Morgan’s house which was also near the start of the trail to see if we could hurry them along. It was there we learned that Becky, who lives the farthest away at about 5 kilometers outside of Queenstown, hadn’t even left her house yet. Lets just say that the hike didn’t get underway until well after 11am.
Now, the hike that had been chosen for today’s adventure was Ben Lomond, which stands at 1748 meters. Not a bad little trek. I made this same climb back in October with another friend while there was still snow on the ground so I really wanted to be able to see it again now that all the snow has melted. Before, it took us just under three hours to reach the summit where we had a nice little 15-20 minute rest before making our way back down in just under an hour and a half. All in all, less than five hours from start to finish. Today’s hike was to prove a wee bit different. When a group of girls get together they tend to get a bit over-talkative and even giggly which is one of the things that is so much fun about being a girl, but makes climbing a mountain a bit more difficult. It probably has something to do with that whole lack of oxygen thing but a lot more stops are required to catch your breath when you are busy chatting away while trying to hike. It definitely made for a fun hike even if it was an incredibly slow one. The last hour of the hike is a killer with several sections of very steep rocky terrain that you spend more time climbing over and less time actually walking. This was when it became every woman for herself as we all started up at our own pace knowing that if we stopped for very long we wouldn’t have the energy to start back up again. The view at the top of Ben Lomond is well worth all of the effort that it takes to get up there. You have a 360-degree view of the several mountain ranges that surround Queenstown and lake Wakatipu, some of which still had snow at their peaks. It is such an amazing sight but my legs are definitely going to be unhappy with me in the morning.
About three quarters of the way up the mountain, my phone rang. After realizing that it was, in fact, my phone and getting over the initial shock of the fact that we had cell reception on top of a mountain I reached in my bag to see who it was. Clumsily I hit the ignore button but the good news was that it was one of the companies that I had applied to work for calling me about an interview. When I got to the top of the mountain, I called her back and we scheduled the interview for this Thursday. Could there really be employment in my future? Did she know that I was on the top of Ben Lomond when I called her back because it is a tourism company that I am interviewing with and I think that the fact that I was hiking up a mountain when I got the interview should mean brownie points in my favor? And now we wait. But until then, what a beautiful way to spend the day. If only I had remembered to reapply the sunscreen.