Just 10km outside the town of Wanaka there exists a trail to the top of Roy’s Peak, one of the many hikes in this beautiful part of New Zealand. The day before we had been ice hiking and were a little tired, but even so I knew that this day was going to hurt! The track to the top is very clearly marked and fairly easy in that it does not involve any scrambling over rocks, it is just a walk, however it is also straight up 1,578 meters for an 11km roundtrip. Described by the local guidebook as ‘difficult’, I very well knew that I would feel every piece of camera gear that I planned loading into my backpack. Still, I also reasoned that I would not be back any time soon, so in went the 70-200 f2.8, the 17 f4 TS-E and the excellent 24-70 f2.8, along with plenty of water and snacks for the planned lunch at the top.

As we headed up the track we were reminded that a large portion of it goes through private farming land by New Zealand’s most populous inhabitant…

Trudging on through the 28 degree heat, I had to keep stopping to change lenses and grab some more images of the stunning view…we really could not have asked for better weather.

The entire hike normally takes about 6 hours according to the guidebooks, however we stopped for lunch at the top and to celebrate our achievement for about half an hour, and stopped multiple times to take photographs, consequently we ended up back at our car 7 hours after we set off. Back to our hotel Edgewater and time for a well earned drink and replenishing meal.