<\/a>The beginning <\/div>
Looking up towards Roy's Peak<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>In the weeds <\/div>
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<\/a>Sheep <\/div>
Lots of sheep<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Susan and Lake Wanaka <\/div>
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<\/a>Pausing for sheep <\/div>
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<\/a>Susan catches me looking at the sheep <\/div>
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<\/a>Thistle, hills, lake <\/div>
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<\/a>The observation point <\/div>
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<\/a>Observation point selfie <\/div>
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<\/a>Switchbacks <\/div>
So many switchbacks<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Roy's Peak Panorama <\/div>
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<\/a>Sheep crossing <\/div>
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<\/a>The ridge between peaks is fun! <\/div>
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<\/a>The ridge over to Mount Alpha <\/div>
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<\/a>New microclimate <\/div>
Susan calls it "like Labrador"<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Looking down at Wanaka <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>!["The hard part" \u2022 <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27717602@N03\/52748353358\/" target="_blank">View on Flickr<\/a>](https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52748353358_d32f52cf8a_m.jpg "\\"The hard part\\"")
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<\/a>"The hard part" <\/div>
The final ascent up the ridge to Mount Alpha<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>I take a break <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>!["Lion turtle" in the hill \u2022 <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27717602@N03\/52748271575\/" target="_blank">View on Flickr<\/a>](https:\/\/farm66.static.flickr.com\/65535\/52748271575_e000b2049e_m.jpg "\\"Lion turtle\\" in the hill")
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<\/a>"Lion turtle" in the hill <\/div>
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<\/a>PXL_20230311_032901092.MP <\/div>
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<\/a>Looking down <\/div>
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<\/a>Weird rock <\/div>
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<\/a>Sunbeams over the valley <\/div>
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<\/a>Mount Alpha summit <\/div>
Roughly the mid-point of the hike<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>![\"Observation](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52748106324_01980908a2_n.jpg\")
On a beautiful half-Saturday off, Susan and I decided to hike the Skyline Track. This started with a hike up Mount Roy, a popular viewing spot around the lake from the town of Wanaka. There were a ton of people (and sheep and cows) on this part of the track, including some fellow balloonatics from the EUSO group, who are also preparing to launch here. Though instead of descending the way we came up, we took the longer through-route to the Cardrona Valley. From Roy’s Peak, we followed the ridge over to Mount Alpha, which is the main reason we decided to go this way. The ridge did not disappoint! Following Mount Alpha was a straightforward but long descent to a little roadside carpark where (with Emaad’s help) we’d previously stashed Susan’s rental car to get home. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6666,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions\/6666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}