• Descending via the Lovely Lake Alta

  • Arriving on the summit of Single Cone

  • Double Cone

  • Adrian at the Start of the Remarkables Traverse

  • New Zealand Scenery

  • Looking down on Queenstown from above

  • The Rob Roy Glacier

  • Hiking in the Matukituki Valley, not a bad way to get over jet lag!

Sunny Scrambles in New Zealand

I’ve been lucky enough to get a whole month off work, so here I am in New Zealand! I’ve had a few days of running, mountain biking, rock climbing and hiking around Wanaka and getting over my jet lag, so today it was time to venture further afield.

Hiking in the Matukituki Valley, not a bad way to get over jet lag!
Hiking in the Matukituki Valley, not a bad way to get over jet lag!
The Rob Roy Glacier
The Rob Roy Glacier

So with a good weather forecast we decided to head over to Queenstown for the Remarkables traverse, a scrambly ridge adventure with beautiful views.

The traverse starts from the ski centre, so the walk in isn’t too hard or too long, but it gave me the chance to admire the views.

Looking down on Queenstown from above
Looking down on Queenstown from above
New Zealand Scenery
New Zealand Scenery

It didn’t take long at all to get to the start of the ridge, which I was excited to see looked like a lot of fun!

Adrian at the Start of the Remarkables Traverse
Adrian at the Start of the Remarkables Traverse

The traverse heads up over two small peaks called Double Cone and then onto a slightly larger peak called Single Cone. The scramble turned out to be just as good as expected, with lots of easy fun climbing moves and some breathtaking exposure. There were a couple of tricky moves on the way up to the first peak of double cone, but we soloed it all, taking care on the tricky sections.

Double Cone
Double Cone

Single Cone turned out to be slightly easier although it looks more sepctacular, and we arrived in good time on the summit to enjoy our lunch.

Arriving on the summit of Single Cone
Arriving on the summit of Single Cone

The descent turned out to be slightly tricky and as we hadn’t brought our harnesses, I learnt how to abseil using a rope without one!

Descending via the Lovely Lake Alta
Descending via the Lovely Lake Alta

Beautiful weather, amazing scenery, a really fun day out, think I might get to like New Zealand!

5 thoughts on “Sunny Scrambles in New Zealand”

  1. I was there in August ’99 and most of it was still covered in snow higher up. The rock looks almost volcanic. I have some fond memories of Queenstown in particular. Have fun!

  2. Love the creative Kiwi names for things: “Remarkables”; “Double Cone”; and “Single Cone”. Was the view remarkable? Did the hills have two and one summit each? 😆 I wonder why they didn’t call the “Wet”? 🙄

    New Zealand looks like an amazingly beautiful part of the world! We really should go sometime, but the problem being one has to pass by Australia to get there. 😯

  3. Yes the names are great, there are hills here called Mount Horrible and Mount Aweful!

    Yes sadly I’m not going to get time to go to Australia on this trip, as Arapilles looks amazing!

  4. I blame our Scottish early settlers for the creativity of our names, how many ‘big hill’s are there in Scotland? (Ben More) or Carn Deargs, Carn Liaths, and of course the odd small hill as well Beinn Bheag. 😉

  5. We may not be too inventive with our names for mountains,but the UK has some wonderful town place names e.g. Cockermouth (!), Wetwang, Shitterton, Crapstone, Sodom, Bell End, Fannystown, and many more I could name!

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