Day 54

The top of the gondola above Queenstown. This was the first stage of my walk to Ben Lomond – it took about an hour up the track intertwined with mountain bike trails. It is such a pretty walk though I was concerned to learn all the pine forest was both introduced AND being trimmed back to have it replaced with native forest. It is amazing how this has spread throughout the mountain range and instructions are provided to remove new saplings if you see them growing. I even was chainsaw crews going hard at it.