Well I had seven days in the mountains. A truly beautiful land. The pictures are pretty much what it is like there in Queenstown. I climbed Ben Lomond from the lake to the top of the tree line and hid my tent as its against the rules to camp up there. My goal was to escape all humanity except my own for a few days so I had to bend the rules a little.

After the first night I was discovered by two local Kea’s at 5am. They have a reputation for destroying packs & tents and I had to go down for supplies so I was a little concerned. Luckily they left my pack unscathed upon my return. Carrying the 40 lb pack up the mountain was quite strenuous. The next day was very hot and by days end I had found a new & more secure tent site hidden by fir tree’s. I also had mild heat stroke, was exhausted after two days climbing and came down with diarrhea in the evening.

The next day rain was forecast so I rested with a crook belly and more diarrhea. I did recover from my previous two days exertion and went to get some food & med’s the next day in town. I also had a sore throat most nights and the place was swarming with blow flies. Apart from these things it was heaven. The birds sang me a beautiful serenade to awaken and fall asleep to, the sound of the wind in the trees drowned out the distraction of humanity as faint as it was in the town below.

The rest of the days I was fit and well. I climbed near to the summit of Ben Lomond but did not go quite to the top as I was perturbed by the large number of other hikers up there on that day. It was a very easy climb from above the tree line but the climb through the forest was strenuous involving rocky cliffs & steep paths all of the way to a 500m altitude above the lake.

Each night I lay in my tent with scenes of the beautiful mountains replaying through my mind. This triggered my subconscious to open my minds eye and mental screen. It was almost perfection. Perhaps a little further from civilization and human influence next time, my imagination may be freed.

I think I will have Queenstown fever soon – take a look at this video…

Click through here for my best pictures montaged: http://freefitnessguru.com/images/range_montage13.jpeg