For those who love New Zealand will definitely know Queenstown- the most exciting and stunning destination in the country
Queenstown has everything — many places to eat, loads of adventurous activities (skydiving, swings, ..), cool people, gorgeous mountains and lakes surroundings, and lots of places to explore by foot.
And for those who love mountain, hiking and beauty of nature will never miss this amazing track: Ben Lomond- a very popular hike in Queenstown.
How to get there?
Located near central Queenstown, there are few easy access points to this track via "the Skyline Access Road" or "the Tiki Trail"
Or you can take the Skyline Gondola up and then start the trail that help you save 1 hour and cut down about 400m of elevation gain.
How long do it take?
Depending on your level of fitness, here is for an average hiker:
Ben Lomond Saddle at 1326 meter(3-4 hours return)
Ben Lomond Summit at 1748 meters (6-8 hours return)
Amazing track but you need to plan it carefully because it may take more hours and be prepared: plenty of water and food, a good jacket for once you are at the top, suncream, hat, headtorch, etc..
People can hike the peak all year round. There will still be snow and ice on the path during the winter or spring. So you should bring with a gear to make it easier for yourself to walk and a pair of snow gloves to keep your hands warm and it's also important to carefully check the weather.
Before the saddle, you will have a great spot for few photos of Queenstown views and parts of Lake Wakatipu.
One of great things is you can use the internet during walking up to the mountain because it's close to Queenstown.
Here I stopped at the Saddles. There's a nice bench here to sit, take a rest and enjoy the incredible views.
During the peak season, especially summer it's very crowded with hundreds of backpackers and tourists lining here to wait to take photo; therefore my recommendation is to set off here before 10am.
It’s a gentle uphill climb the entire time and does not take much your effort. It's long but never feeL particularly steep
The views are out of this world;honestly, Ben Lomond is the best hike in New Zealand and I did it twice during my 3-months living in Queenstown.You can view lots of mountain goats and wild flowers on the way as well
It was a nice weather so I could see clear views across Lake Wakatipu to the Remarkables mountain range from the top.
I was not good at hiking before and never did any tracking or hiking in my life until I moved to South of New Zealand 😅. However, I'm so proud of myself when I made it to the submit.
View at Skyline on the way walking down and stopped for a cool ice cream 😜
Hiking the Ben Lomond Track was my grestest memory and my most favorite hike in New Zealand. And I did get a huge improvement on my hiking level since this track😍 and got ready for more challenging tracks later.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks for seeing my post ❤️
“We don’t stop hiking because we grow old –
We grow old because we stop hiking.”
– Finis Mitchel