Roy's Peak, Wanaka

We arrived in a small town called Wanaka which is situated in a big valley in between lots of mountains at a lake. It took some very skilled driving to get there, but as always, Captain Gasoline made things happen.

After having spent a few minutes driving around the town, we found a hostel and looked out the window: So, what mountain are we going to climb here?

We got hold of some of the local people and were told that the little hilltop next to the lake, Roy's Peak, was only about 1500 meters high, we should plan 6-8 hours for the walk. Hmm, that didn't sound too bad.

We agreed on going to the mountain early next morning and we were ready to set the first footstep on the trail at noon... We all had a beer too many in the bar the evening before.

After a 15 min of walking and maybe 200 meters up in the air it was time to celebrate, we were almost there. Well, not exactly but it looked like we needed some encouragement.
After 30 minutes or so, the trek started to get steep and we met people on the way up wishing us good luck. What did they mean with that, it was just a small hill.
The grass on the mountain was full of sheep, bunnies and some weird small birds, and hundreds of them all. But none of the animals were tame, they were quite afraid of humans it looked like.
I knew I should not have had the last couple of beers last night, there was just no power on the steam train, couldn't really keep up with the young guys. Ryan thought it would be easier to aim for the ridge and walk up there, so he split at some point, just walking straight up the bushes.
Nubian was quite fast on his feet as well, and at some point I told him just to go ahead and then I was on my own. I pulled out the iPod and then put on some good music and found my own pace.
There were some real good view points on the way up and it just got better and better. At some point I met Nubian sitting looking out from a view point - he was so tired and didn't want to go further. I was very close to agreeing with him, but am too stubborn.
We were closer to the top than ever before, but it was quite far away still, but I kept going. The experience beats the youth once again. There were some quite steep ascends, this place was not for kids for sure.
I finally reach the top, and are greeted buy a group of Canadians that passed me 20 minutes earlier. They were making fun of Americans and how they wasted resources on water bottles and so on. I didn't laugh so they asked me if I was from the States, and I could answer yes to that. Then they all got quiet, haha. They had run out of water and were quite thirsty. That's when I became the hero pulling out 750ml of water and handed them. They were so happy, amateur hippies climbing a mountain without enough water.
20 minutes later far away on the ridge, I saw Ryan and Nubian fighting their way up. Ryan had reached the ridge, but had to go down a few times as there wasn't actually a path to walk on.
Finally at the top I managed to get the guys to put a smile on the face so we could get a photo, before the descend. It took a looong time to get down, it actually was more painful than walking up.
Back at the hostel at night we had a few beers to celebrate. We were talked into participating in a pool and foosball competition, and after 30 minutes they could all congratulate the Danish guy for winning the pool game. The price was $30 bar tap, which we immediately converted into 6 tequila shots, yeah. Magic pool skills :-)