Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Wellington (dpa) - New Zealander Kate Leggoe will celebrate her 90th birthday next weekend by climbing 2,280-metre-high Mount Rolleston in the country's Southern Alps, a newspaper said Tuesday.
Leggoe told The Press she was disappointed the climb will take two days, instead of one. She will be accompanied on the trek by three friends.
"The young ones just hop up Rolleston, but we're taking it a bit easier since they've got me on board and I'm getting a bit older," she said. "We will climb up to base camp one day, sleep over, and then climb to the top."
Leggoe said her husband Dick, 86, will accompany her to base camp but not to the peak because "he doesn't like all that ice".
Leggoe, who has been climbing New Zealand's mountains for more than 70 years, was one of the first women to scale the country's highest peak, the 3,754-metre high Mount Cook.
Copyright 2005 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
