099 – Queenstown Hill

Supposedly there are spectacular views and some kind of magical basket on the top of this hill. I admit, the magic basket thing intrigues me. Does it produce bounty of the harvest? Is it a homing beacon for aliens, or even perhaps the basket they put their babies in to incubate before they creep into human society and take over the world… yeah, I need something to occupy my mind.
The information I read about the hill was not wrong. I believed the basket was the top, but as the map shows, it is only part way and seeing the steep trail before me, I resolved to unravel the mystery of the basket and go no further.
I was very glad I brought my walking stick. Cursing the weight of my camera, but ya’ll know I don’t go anywhere without it. Especially if the promo material indicates ‘spectacular views.’

There were several signs along the lower part of the trail. I assumed placed there so people could still read them, since the upper part of the trail oxygen was thin and sweat dripping into eyes was prevalent.
The official ‘gate’ which ‘started’ the trail was about 1/3rd of the way up.

There is a very nice inscription which reads: “This pathway leads to our future. With each step, we seek the guidance and wisdom of those who have gone before us; we walk with a sense of hope, that those who follow in our footsteps beyond the year 2000 can do so with the same sense of pride in, and protection for, this beautiful place.”
Short, simple, and a great way to catch my breath. This was not an easy climb for me today for some reason. It was not a simple climb, but it was not this hard. Even for me.
Other signs along the path went on to explain the history.
Around 1100, the Waitaha people came to Lake Wakatipu in search of pounamu (Greenstone), taramea (wild Spaniard), tikumu (mountain daisy) and the moa (the big flightless birds they hunted into extinction).
In the 1500s, the Waitaha were joined by Ngati Mamoe, who arrived from the coast on birding and eeling expeditions. A century later, these two tribes, became integrated with the newly arrived Ngai Tahu.
At that time the hill was known as Te Tapu-Nui A hill which signifies intense sacredness.
Guess what? Here come the Europeans. They did not realize the native people had already gone around naming things and had achieved a good balance of land and resource in the area. William Rees and Nicholas von Tunzelman arrived here in 1860, hoping to find grazing land for sheep and established ‘pastoralism’ in the area. That is setting up land for animals to use as pasture, not a religious thing. But it may have been religious. They were certainly of a different religion.
Even though they just wanted to set up areas for their sheep, soon after they arrived, they discovered gold. Yeah, they tried to keep it a secret, but some pesky helpers who came to sheer the sheep let the cat out of the bag and in 1862, the “solitude of the lake, the uninhabited gullies and the lonely mountains had passed away forever.”
Or so the sign says. I would agree from what I have seen.
Queenstown became known as ‘The Home Station’ and then ‘The Camp.’ By 1863 almost every kind of business was operating here, from gold offices to grog shanties, cigar shops to shoemakers. The town boasted 26 hotels and a hospital at Frankton. The first consignment of gold was transported to Kingston by one of the 21 boats on Lake Wakatipu and 3 years later, the town was declared a municipality.
So from nothing, or at least peaceful balance of nature to municipality in less than 5 years. Sounds very European. And not at all what the sheep farming founders wanted.
Even though they established the hotels and the hospital to take care of all the people flooding into the area, the sheep farmer who remained ended up eventually being driven out of the area by the government.
Boats, train, roads, cars all made there way to the area, and by 1939, Queenstown was established as a summer and winter resort town, not unlike Aspen or Vale in the states. By the 1960’s Queenstown was dubbed ‘the adventure capital of the world’ and boasts it is a year around adventure resort.
There is no doubt there are a lot of natural things to explore in the area. National Parks, Milford Sound, this hill… but make no mistake, this town is a upscale tourist mecca. If you walk the actual town, every third shop is a tourism shop, selling tours here or there, helicopter rides, boat rides, airplane rides. Next to those are coffee shops or bottle stores which is what they call liquor stores in this part of the world. And any remaining shops are restaurants or high end active gear stores. Hiking stores, gear related clothing stores, bike shops or ski shops.
I was hard pressed to find a grocery, which was essentially a 7 Eleven on steroids hidden on a back street near the police station. I did see a McDonalds. I was tempted as I did not want to pay $30 for a hamburger at the other local restaurants.
But back to the hill.

About half way up, or so I hoped, there was a dot on the map that indicated ‘scenic view.’ The above is the scenic view. All kinds of rock stacked up by people who have made the climb.
The only other thing that can be seen from this point are trees and the path which was getting steeper.
And people heading down the hill, from the top, who were not inspiring me about being anywhere close to where they had been.
I admit, for whatever reasons I was not up for this climb today. Tired, hot, just all kinds of stuff not making any of this easy. Perhaps it is because it is the spring equinox and all is funky with the world. Or maybe it is the autumn equinox here. Or perhaps that was yesterday. Or… perhaps I am oxygen deprived and delusional. I am tired for certain.

Anyway, onward and upward, and about 45 minutes later at my slow pace, I finally rounded a corner to view the magic basket.

That was anticlimactic.

A simple metal plaque on a rock nearby reads:
Artist: Caroline Robinson.
The basket’s spiral of steel follows you
Inward
To Reflect
To draw inspiration from the mountains, lake, and from those who are with you
Outward
to dream
for the future.
Time flies, eternity awaits.
The Lion foundation, community trust of southland and Lottery grants board gave generously to this project.

No alien birthing basket. No bounty of the harvest bursting forth from other dimensions. Just a metal “basket” I would describe more plate like than basket like.

still might be an antenna or way to communicate with ET and they simply do not advertise the fact. I wouldn’t either, I suppose.

But the sign did get one thing right. The view was very nice.

And there was a bench. A bench that encouraged me to live…

I was working on that. Not positive I would continue the act at that moment, but nice to have the support.

To love…

Yes, I was really in love with that bench in that moment. Holy moly.

And to laugh.

not much in the laughing mood.

But I rested at the basket, which on this day my body demanded and I complied. All thanks to the bench.
A few people came and went, and eventually I gathered myself to make the trek down the hill.

I will admit, I considered the path to the ‘top’ for a few moments. It did not look at all intimidating, but I could not see the end of the path either. And I still needed to get back down, so I left the thought and the path behind and took the ‘other’ apparently ‘shorter’ path back down the hill.
The shorter path was indeed shorter, but it was also much, much steeper. I sat and scooted a few times, and zig zaged my way back to the stacked rocks area.

Eventually, about 3 hours later which was double the predicted time the route should take. I sat at the bottom of the hill.
New Zealand ‘hill’ climbed. Check.
And that was about all I had the energy for so I went back to the hotel and ate from my grocery bounty from the day before. At least I did something.