With the South Island of New Zealand finally free of lockdown, I head back into the mountains for a little hiking trip up into my own back yard!
We walk up the Arrow river, rich with old gold mining history as it winds its way up the valley towards the derelict town of Macetown.
We throw a right off the Macetown "road" and head up the New Chum Ridge Track, head left onto the sparse Miners Route and then shoot up off trail to the 1108m spot height. There are expansive views throughout the Wakatipu basin of Arrowtown and Queenstown, and many of the basins feature peaks such as The Remarkables, Coronet Peak, Cecil Peak, Walter Peak, Mt Sale, Crown Peak, Brow Peak, Ben Lomond, Bowen Peak, Mt Soho and Cardrona.
On the summit we have a crack at a little bit of ham radio (summits on the air) and make contact with stations as far away as Japan using voice (SSB) and also morse code! (CW).
There was also some "exceptionally good" wildlife, nature and particularly bird photography/videography done. I apologise in advance for this, it was terrible.
Please enjoy, and get outside and explore if you can! 🙂