Right Up Mt Roy Wednesday 25 February

This was D-Day for us, our day of reckoning. We’d trained and built up for the climb, Mt Roy is 1500m or so, a climb of over 1200m.  Sometimes it’s called Roys Peak, but Mt Roy sounds more adventurous. The Wednesday Walking Group was  going there that day as well, at least a couple of them were – the rest were off on Cavalcade epics. My sister was one of the two. We had seen their pace the previous week, so decided we’d better be like the Two Little Pigs and start out an hour ealier. So the alarm went off at 6:15am, it was dark and cold. Yet it was fun, the early start reminded me of the start of many climbs in my younger days. We eventually started up the hill at 7:55am. In the end we had a 35 minute start on the other two. There was cloud on the tops, but beautiful light across the lake as we gained height. The other two caught and passed us about 2/3rds of the way up, but we were happy with our progress. And it was obvious that we would have to wait for views anyway. Eventually we climbed up into the cloud/mist. It was about midday by the time we found the top. Strangely it was warmer up higher, probably because the mist was thinner at the top. We put on warm clothing, and ate our lunch, and chatted to a German couple sharing the spot with us. By about 2pm more people were arriving at the top, and the views were starting to emerge through the clouds. We had glimpses of Mt Aspiring, but the most stunning views were out over a calm Lake Wanaka.

We finally headed back down about 3pm. The descent took us 2 1/2 hours, which was a good reminder of how much we had climbed up. We finally reached the bottom tired and sore, especially our toes after all that downhill. It was a very satisfying day – we’d worked up to it, and achieved a good climb. The views were ample reward – it really is a stunning viewpoint.

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