{"id":2392,"date":"2019-12-02T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T11:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2025-08-07T08:34:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T12:34:30","slug":"lake-alta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/lake-alta\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Alta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This began our fifth full day in New Zealand. We\u2019d had three solid days of trekking, on the\u00a0Ben Lomond<\/a>,\u00a0Roy\u2019s Peak<\/a>, and\u00a0Routeburn<\/a>\u00a0tracks, each with some fairly significant mileage and elevation gain, followed by a full \u201czero\u201d day, where we enjoyed some local vineyards and a touristy visit to Arrowtown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were looking for a bit easier day \u2013 not quite a \u201czero\u201d, but something without the bigger elevation and mileage numbers.  Lake Alta sounded like a perfect fit \u2013 near Queenstown, in the Remarkables range, and a relatively short 2.5 mile round-trip hike\/walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weather was again in our favor \u2013 low-60\u2019s \u2013 which was great. Despite the short distance, this turned out to be not a typical hike \u2013 marked trailhead and all. The first clue was the drive itself.  Once we turned off the main road and headed toward the Remarkables ski area \u2013 the road narrowed and quickly gained altitude.  And that meant switchbacks, LOTS of them \u2013 oh, and driving on the left side of the road, and an apparent lack of guard rails.   It was unsettling, but ok, we got there.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ski areas in the off-season alway have a look of casual dis-repair and borderline neglect. We see it in New Hampsire, we saw it in Gourette France, and we saw it here again. But that was good because there weren\u2019t any people.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This really wasn\u2019t much of a hike \u2013 more like a trek through some ski terrain, but the views and images were amazing. From a view-per-effort perspective, this was really a great hike. Check it out:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Yes, that\u2019s snow in December in New Zealand!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Yes, a super-short hike, but some beautiful scenery!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Definitely worth the trip to see such terrain and views, especially in contrast to what we\u2019d seen at\u00a0Ben Lomond<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Roy\u2019s Peak<\/a>!
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This began our fifth full day in New Zealand. We\u2019d had three solid days of trekking, on the\u00a0Ben Lomond,\u00a0Roy\u2019s Peak, and\u00a0Routeburn\u00a0tracks, each with some fairly significant mileage and elevation gain, followed by a full \u201czero\u201d day, where we enjoyed some local vineyards and a touristy visit to Arrowtown. We were looking for a bit easier day \u2013 not quite a \u201czero\u201d, but something without the bigger elevation and mileage numbers.  Lake Alta sounded like a perfect fit \u2013 near Queenstown,Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4762,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/4762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}