We woke to a beautiful day in Queenstown., with the sun shining on the mountains and Lake Wakatipu.

We decided to have a relaxing morning, catching up on work and logistics. After lunch, Cassie and I decided to take a quick hike on the mountain behind our apartment—Ben Lomond.

To speed things up a bit, we took a gondola ride partway up the mountain. We set off and the trail soon became muddy, but as we climbed the mud froze.

The trail became icy, but the views were magnificent.

This was the same view as from our house, but from much higher. Indeed, we were higher than some of the planes landing in Queenstown.

We hiked for about two hours, and the trail turned snowy. Not gonna lie – the trail through the mountains getting snowy definitely laid down some serious Lord of the Rings vibes.

Eventually, we reached a saddle point between Ben Lomond and Bowen Peak. Here’s Cassie with Bowen Peak in the background.

From the saddle we could look north, where all we could see were natural mountains with no signs of humans. At the risk of repeating myself, New Zealand is amazing.

We hiked longer than we were supposed to, but it was too pretty to stop. We had to hustle back down the mountain. It was a great hike.

-Will