“Just think of the photos!”

We all have those friends. The ones who have crazy ideas and plans. That person who pressures you into finishing that bottle of beer, or trying a full twist triple back; something that normally wouldn’t cross your mind.

Well, I’m proud to say I have a few of those friends, and only a bit embarrassed to say that I am one of those friends to others as well.

Once, when I was solo camping in New Zealand, I got a text message from Frida (one of my more spontaneous friends), asking me to join her and her boyfriend on a hike. I remember not recognizing the track she named, or knowing how many miles/kilometres it was to the top. We had a short, and probably uninformative, conversation about what this entailed. Most of the responses were filled with, “Girl I don’t know! But look!” followed by screenshots of Instagram posts and photos from Google. I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t look appealing.

@rainaroundtheglobe

The hike is called “Roys Peak”, and it is about 16km return trip (10 miles) and 1300 meters (4265 feet) elevation. (Find out more here: https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/otago/places/wanaka-area/things-to-do/roys-peak-track/). In recent years it has become famous for its presence on Instagram, with many people hiking just for that “photo on the ‘gram”. Some people, if they have the funds, will take a helicopter ride to the top of the mountain, just for the images.

I met up with Frida and her boyfriend the night before our sunrise hike, and had a delicious “home-cooked” meal in the back of their campervan, which they’d named Betty. We were all getting ready for bed, as we had a stupid-early wakeup time, when Frida took a look at the website about the track. She looked up at her boyfriend and me, and asked the all-important question: “The website says we need ‘Alpine Experience’. Does anyone have alpine experience?”

When we woke up at 3:30 in the morning, we knew it was going to be a tough and long day. We drove to the base of the hike, and began layering up. We packed our bags with snacks, and of course some chocolate, went to the bathroom, and began the hike up.

The first few kilometers were the toughest. The hike seemed to continually go straight up, and with no light to show us how far we had come (or how much more we had to go), we had no sense of distance besides the sores building on our extremely out of shape bodies. We even walked through a cloud, and complained about how the clouds were going to ruin our views from the top. Suddenly, we surpassed the clouds, and a bit of light started coming out. We turned around and noticed that the clouds were sitting just below the surrounding mountains. With only a few more kilometers to the top, we picked up our pace, rushing to the top. We didn’t want to miss the sunrise; after all, that was why were there!

The three of us made it to the top just in time for sunrise, with no one else around. We started clicking away, taking all the images we could. Once we got our hearts’ content of photos, we sat and just enjoyed the sun coming up.

@rainaroundtheglobe @leo_kop

Pretty soon, though, our sweat began to freeze and the sun was blinding us. We rushed back down to the car park, where Frida and her boyfriend quickly jumped into their car as they had to work in just a few hours.

The days that followed were painful. We would swap messages about how going up a flight of stairs made us want to cry, or how using the toilet was its own obstacle course of strategic maneuvers. But then we would exchange photos that we had taken, and it justified the pain… slightly. We talk about that hike to this day, and make many more plans for future photo adventures together.

@rainaroundtheglobe @leo_kop @friiidaberg