The Remarkables

Less than 2 kilometers outside the city of Queenstown, New Zealand, there is 13.5-km winding (and in some places white-knuckle-inducing) road with incredible vistas of Lakes Hayes and the ice blue Kawarau River. At the top is the Remarkables Ski Resort, a well-known place to ski in the winter months. Right now, there is not a hint of snow on the ground, which makes it a perfect time of year to hike around the slopes.

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Queenstown on far left (left blue flag denotes Airbnb, right blue flag denotes the beginning of the Remarkables Road). Large lake to the left is Lake Wakatipu (more on that lake later).

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The winding road that we drove up to get to the ski area. Luckily it’s been paved since 2016, so our car didn’t have to take quite as much of a beating.

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The valley below.

Willie leaves no rock unclimbed!

The vertical hike up to Lake Alta.

Lake Alta, a cirque alpine lake (meaning a carved bowl-shaped from a glacier).

Angela with a celebratory beer for making it to the lake!

We saw some pretty incredible plants on the way up, too. Hardy creatures for such a cold, high, dry altitude!

Hectorella caespitosa

Epilobium porphyrium

Sigaus australis (alpine grasshopper)

Who needs a trail when you can irresponsibly scramble up scree?

The view at the top!

And then you must scramble down.

Somehow we managed to scramble down this without incident.

The lodge from above.

The same lodge in the winter! Photo by Mark H. from TripAdvisor.