Since switching modes to “Van Life”, we been getting “out and about” a lot more - mostly finding hikes to complete. There are hundreds to chose from.
At the top, here’s what we saw:
A little wider view, but not much change, but it was a tough ascent to the peak. We were very happy to see have reached it.
Saturday, we hiked Roy’s Peak. This was a very different experience. We arrived to complete the 6-8 hour hike “early” to find that the parking lot was well over half full. The trail was fully exposed from the bottom to the top with a series of switch backs. We traversed past skiddish sheep and cows that didn’t care about us at all. The lower 75% was a loose gravel road, the top was more of a well worn path. It was a vertical grind for about 90 minutes straight! Reaching the busy “view point”, we took at look over to the Rocky Mountain hike. We had already dwarfed that.
From the top it was this.
Yes, those are clouds that we are looking through.
Sunday we hiked the “Pyramid”. It was a 5 km hike with about the first 3 k gradual incline through pasture and pine forest that was so rife with different fungi that Gayle dubbed it the secret mushroom village. We paused many times to reflect on the beauty of it (and once to play with a curious fantail). The last 2 k were hard up and some up and down. The trail was solely ours - except for the sheep and cows, of course. We were very happy to be done and felt very proud of ourselves. The view over Twizel was incredible.
The next day we drove about 5 minutes to a lookout to see Mount Cook. We looked back and noted how insignificant the Pyramid actually was!
There are always two parts to a hike - first “the journey” and second “the goal”. One is not more important than the other, but sometimes, one “wins out” as the best part.
However, you can see that perspective is relative. Sometimes, it’s not until we move away or look at the photos that we realize there might be a different way to look at things.