Queenstown has long been labelled the "adventure capital of the world", and climbing Ben Lomond — the 1748m peak that dominates the mountains behind town — generates some genuine excitement.
"Can we ride the luge at the top of the gondola? Before we do the walk?" pleaded son Ben, getting in some early negotiations before agreeing to hike to the peak.
"We’ll ride the gondola up, and if you get to the top of the mountain we can go luging before coming down into town on the gondola," I said.
The boys looked at each other. "Okay, deal!" said older brother Riki. "Let’s go!"
As a Queenstown family, we’d put off climbing Ben Lomond with the boys until we felt they were old enough. It’s a few years ago now, but with Riki and Ben both having hit 10, wife Yuriko and I felt they’d both make it to the top fairly easily. I had been running hiking tours for a decade and knew the trail well. The boys were both energetic young sparks, and keeping them under control was going to be more problematic than actually getting them going.
Following the ride up the gondola we admired the vista from Skyline’s viewing deck, long used by Tourism New Zealand in images to entice visitors to this southern wonderland — Queenstown far below, sparkling Lake Wakatipu and a plethora of captivating mountains.
"Can we ride the luge?" asked Ben. "Now?" He was studying the luge tracks running just below the lookout, totally ignoring the view. The brightly coloured luges were whizzing by, ridden by excited youngsters.
"If you get to the top of Ben Lomond, we’ll get you both a three-ride luge package," I said. The boys took off so fast that we could barely keep up.
There’s not a lot to worry about when you take children hiking in Aotearoa. No poisonous snakes — in fact, no snakes at all — and no dangerous animals such as bears for them to upset. But still, as responsible parents, you want to keep your children in sight — which wasn’t going to be easy. We’d picked a perfect blue-sky, midsummer day. Weather wasn’t an issue; Mum and Dad keeping up might be.
Once we hit the trail, the boys hurtled ahead on the wide, easy-to-follow track through dark forest until, some 10 minutes in, Ben Lomond appeared, dead ahead, looking huge. We were soon above the tree line and climbing steadily towards Ben Lomond Saddle, our first target. There was only low-growing scrub and tussock lining the trail as it climbed, so it was relatively easy to see the boys as they raced ahead.
An hour or so into the climb, the views started to open up, revealing more and more of Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables mountain range away to the east. Some early starters were already on their descent. "Those two belong to you?" a young guy asked.
"Good luck keeping up with them!" I grunted a reply. We finally approached Ben Lomond Saddle, sitting at 1326m between Ben Lomond (1748m) and Bowen Peak (1631m).
An alpine extravaganza away to the north rolled into view as we reached the saddle. Endless valleys, mountains and snow-covered peaks. The boys were waiting for us.
While we’d been climbing more or less due north, Ben Lomond still towered away to the southwest. The well-marked track curled around to steepen and follow a ridge-line up towards the summit.
Near the top, the track swung around to the western side of the peak and we were looking down on horseshoe-shaped Moke Lake, far below. There was no-one else at the summit when we eventually climbed to the high point, marked by a cairn. "Named after Ben Lomond in Scotland," I told the boys. "Lots of the explorers and pioneers around here were Scottish."
My attempts to educate my sons were rudely interrupted by the arrival of three kea, intelligent alpine parrots who have seen it all before and know how to separate gullible hikers from their picnic lunches. "Don’t feed them," I told the boys. "Just enjoy them."
The big green parrots had gone into standard formation: two entertaining us from the front while one tried to sneak up on unsupervised backpacks and lunches from the rear. Fortunately, I’d seen it all before too. But it was incredibly entertaining.
After a 20-minute break at the peak, playing with the kea and admiring the unparalleled alpine outlook, we started back down.
It didn’t take long. Once again, well behind our sons, Yuriko and I could pick up the occasional word in their conversation. "Luge" seemed to pop up with great regularity. The descent on the same track seemed to take nowhere as long as the climb. The boys almost seemed to be running!
"Dad," said Riki, when we arrived back at Skyline. "Climbing Ben Lomond was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Now let’s ride the luge!"
The book
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