The second trek we were suggested was Isthmus Peak summit. That was to be our third summit in in four days. The track started right by the road and winded past sheep pastures toward the mountains. It was pretty steep and zigzagged further for a couple of hours. There was some wind and clouds from the start, but it wasn’t that bad, it was still warm.

But all that was about to change. The higher we got, the stronger the wind became. We started so see some snow around, and before we knew, we found ourselves walking in knee-deep snow leaning on the wind that was ready to sweep us from our feet on the slippery snow. But, we got to the top (1385m)! From the peak we could see Lake Wanaka on one side and Lake Hawea on the other. There were some heavy clouds on the other side of Lake Wanaka but the view was still stunning. 

We came back to Wanaka a week later, as a matter of fact, on the opening day of Roys Peak trail. Roys Peak trail was the same length (16km return), but the summit was higher (1578m), so there was a lot of steep climbing involved. Also, the weather was totally different – the sun was burning, it was hot, dry and dusty. A lot of the snow on the tops had already melted, everything looked a little different. We had too little water on us, which added some pressure, but we still decided to make it to the top. And indeed we did (first picture is the view from the top)! Roys Peak seems to be much more famous than Isthmus Peak, but we didn’t feel that it was significantly better. Still, it was nice to have the chance to go there and see the beautiful surroundings once more.