Arriving in New Zealand 3 days prior, I was still feeling pretty jet lagged when a friend suggested I joined a group of them climbing famous Roy's Peak, Wanaka. Checking out #royspeak on instagram for around the 50th time I thought yeah why not, can't be that hard! Now, I've heard some people have made it up and down again in 4 hours... It took us 6.
I mean the ankle deep snow didn't help with the constant uphill battle in the clouds, but we made it! And it was so worth it; that feeling of relief and excitement after gaining 1,258m elevation, despite the lack of visibility! When we reached the lookout point around 30 minutes from the very top, we got lucky and the cloud broke a little, giving us glimpses of the stunning backdrop of peaks and lakes. Literally in awe of New Zealand's beauty!
Pretty stoked to get the 16km hike under wraps so early into my time in NZ.. even if we felt like our legs and hips were about to break as we finally reached the bottom! You really can't beat that feeling of accomplishment when finally reaching that "on top of the world" moment, and doing it all with your own two legs! Excited for more days like these.