An American Abroad: Climbing a Mountain

Okay it wasn't exactly a mountain it was more like a hill, but it was covered in snow! Saturday night our host from Lavender Hill, John, called us to see if we wanted to go with them to Raindbow Lodge Ski Field. They were going to be skiing on Sunday and wanted to know if we wanted to do some hiking while they were on the slopes. We were up bright and early on Sunday morning to head over to meet them at their house. The road to the Nelson Lakes National Park was windy and as we headed up we realized that it was actually winter down here! There was so much untouched snow it was unbelievable! Didn't we just come from sunny warm Mapua?

Once we got there we warmed up with a hot chocolate before building up our bravery to hike up the side of one of the slopes to the ridge line and the most incredible view of the lakes. The snow was icy in some places and I obviously fell. I also managed to climb up a really steep hill only to look down and see my hat had fallen out of my pocket at the base. I suppose it was a good workout to climb the hill twice...

Once we got to the top is was all worth it. We looked around to 360 degree views of snow capped mountains and down to the Nelson Lakes shining blue in the warm sun. I think I even got a tan! (its gone now of course)