Edge Suites Wanaka

Day 49

Today we left Franz Josef for the town of Wanaka. On the way there we stopped off at the picturesque Mirror Lake, where you can see the reflection of the mountains in the lake. It is a perfect reflection. See if you can spot the grassy Eiffel Tower in the photo (rotate the photo). After admiring and taking in the surroundings we headed off again. On the way to Wanaka we saw some mind blowing scenary, as we drove past a range of mountains for about an hour. We eventually arrived ...

... to the exit, which he was not happy about! The toilets had an optical illusion that made it look like we were in Ancient Rome and the toilet seats were filled with money, sweets or flowers. We saw some clever holograms and there was a room of faces that followed you wherever you went, which was really clever. There was also a room tilted by 15 degrees, so it looked ...

We arrived in Wanaka in early evening and found ourselves a spot to freecamp. We walked into town, got some food, had a drink or two then went back to the van for the night... we were rudely awaken at 5am and moved on promptly. It was a bit of a shock waking up so fast! We drove along the main highway out of town and parked in a lay-by till we were ready to be awake but everytime a car came past the van rocked! I couldn't sleep for a bit but I got used to it after a while. In the ...

... de veure el Perito Moreno i Pius XI a Sud America, no es pot comparar de cap manera. El mes espectacular es que el bosc tropical esta a tocar del galciar, un bosc nou que s'ha format amb aquests darrers 150 anys. A mitja hora de cami cap al sud hi ha l'altre gran glaciar, el Glaciar Fox. Espero que tinguem l'oportunitat de tornar-los a veure des de dalt... fingers crossed! Passarem per Haast i atravessarem Mount Aspiring National Park. Ens ...

... really good feel to it, lots of outdoors types so we dont look out of place for a change in our scruffs. Bri got to play a bit of guitar while we were sat outside a bar, but no one threw him money. Stunning vistas of the mountains and lake ,lots of good walks....glad we made it up Mt Iron 2,400 feet to check out the 360 degree panaromic view and good practice for Peru. Mable : O )

... the Roy Glacier and mountain range. It was an amazing site, really beautiful snow covered mountain peaks. We even saw a piece of the glacier fall off with a thundering boom. We stayed for about an hour just looking at the views, it was hard to get enough. I would highly recommend the hike to anyone as it was one of the most stunning sites I'd ever seen for just a few hours hike.

Got on the road and within an hour the famous west coast rain set in which did not let up for the rest of the day. Stopped in Franz Joseph and saw the little movie about the glaciers but walking up to them was not an option. Fox Glacier is still closed off due to the road being washed away or we might have tried to drive close enough to see it. Continued on in the rain and headed over Haast Pass in the vain ...

... floors in the toilet / shower block (not that I got to experience them as not sure it was cold enough - discount!) and had a hot tub & sauna. It has to be said that the hot tub was a blessing on the tired feet - the nearest thing I'd had to a bath in weeks. Then to make the most of the nice weather we decided to go to the cinema - Cinema Paradiso has an ecclectic collection of sofas, armchairs and even an old car to sit in (thanks for the recommendation Sam ...

Today was, quite simply, "awesome".

Usually I hate that word with a passion, but sometimes it can be appropriate ;)

We woke up after a bit of a lie-in, and decided to do some blogging/emailing for ...

... be as scenic as our drive yesterday.

It looked promising as we passed through some very nice valleys, and over some furious rivers, there were really powerful.





As we drove over the top of the pass and headed ...