Our first day of a 10-day NZ holiday. After a rainy morning, the day turned fine and we decided to climb the steep hill up to Bob’s Peak on the Tiki Track. It’s a steep climb of around 500 metres over 2.2 kms and takes about an hour. This is where the skyline gondola goes to - most people ride up and avoid the steep climb but our motto is always “muscles over machinery!” The climb is through lovely pine forest with expansive views out over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Ranges towards the top. There are zip line towers in the upper half and we enjoyed seeing tourists zipping between the towers and having a blast. The Skyline Gondola centre is busy with a steady stream of tourists and mountain bikers. It must be mountain biking heaven to ride down the steep trails and ten ride a gondola up to do it all again! After leaving the tourist facilities at the top, we walked part of the Ben Lomand track. Lovely mountain views and plenty of bird life. We’ll have to come back when we have time to do the complete track. The steep downhill trail was certainly easier on the lungs but hard on the legs. We certainly felt we had earned a hearty dinner tonight!

Walking

There are numerous trail corrections at the moment due to logging / clearing out a massive slip but the trail is well marked.

NZ, South Island, Tiki Track

Queenstown-Lakes District, Otago, New Zealand

time : Feb 25, 2025 1:47 PM

duration : 2h 50m 22s

distance : 7.2 km

total_ascent : 645 m

highest_point : 892 m

avg_speed : 2.6 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Our first day of a 10-day NZ holiday. After a rainy morning, the day turned fine and we decided to climb the steep hill up to Bob’s Peak on the Tiki Track. It’s a steep climb of around 500 metres over 2.2 kms and takes about an hour. This is where the skyline gondola goes to - most people ride up and avoid the steep climb but our motto is always “muscles over machinery!” The climb is through lovely pine forest with expansive views out over Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable Ranges towards the top. There are zip line towers in the upper half and we enjoyed seeing tourists zipping between the towers and having a blast. The Skyline Gondola centre is busy with a steady stream of tourists and mountain bikers. It must be mountain biking heaven to ride down the steep trails and ten ride a gondola up to do it all again! After leaving the tourist facilities at the top, we walked part of the Ben Lomand track. Lovely mountain views and plenty of bird life. We’ll have to come back when we have time to do the complete track. The steep downhill trail was certainly easier on the lungs but hard on the legs. We certainly felt we had earned a hearty dinner tonight!