Lakeside mountain views

• Sarahandaimee's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Wanaka

Trip Start Dec 31, 2006 Previous
Entry Trip End Nov 2007 Next
Entry

  Wanaka, New Zealand
Wednesday, August 8, 2007

We drove to Wanaka over the Haast pass with sheer snow capped mountains on each side.  We stopped off at Thunder creek which is a 90ft waterfall and had lunch before walking a short distance to the waterfall itself.  It was massive, an amazing site with a river full of the prettiest stripy rocks at the bottom and icy cold water.  We had a quick toilet stop at Cameron flats before heading up to our second stop, the blue pools - as Peter had spent alot of time on Google Earth looking at them.  Once more we wandered through moss covered trees and over a swing bridge where we could immediately see how the place got its name as there was a section of water under the bridge which was the brightest blue ever and there was what we later learned to be a trout swimming in it.  We walked a short distance to the blue pools themselves again a brilliant blue apparently it is caused by the sun reflecting on ice cold water coming from the glacier way up above.  Then we drove to Wanaka past its famous lake  with mountains towering above it across the other side (Gandalf rides past them at some point) and found our campsite

Blue Pools

.  We then went straight into the town stopping to admire lake Wanaka and take yet more photos.  We had a wander around town and went for an Indian before returning to the campsite.

Next day we stopped first at Puzzling world (which does exactly what it says on the tin).  Outside is a tower leaning at a funny angle where you can postion yourself and put your hands in the air so that it looks like you are holding it up, a great comedy photo.  You had 2 choices once inside the maze which was 1.5km (!) or the illusion rooms, we went for the illusion rooms.  The first room was full of some great holograms - the best being a telescope hologram that you could actually look down the eyepiece. The next was a circular room with a wall of faces including Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa & Nelson Mandela - you cover your eye with one hand a walk around and it looks like the eyes are following you - weird.  Next was a room which was on a huge slant it was very hard to stand up and actually made you quite nauseous.  It had a snooker table where the white ball appeared to roll upwards, some stairs which if you stood on it looked like you were stood at a really funny angle.  There was a also a chair which you could sit on and you rolled upwards as well as water that appeared to run through a tube upwards, very very bizarre.  On our way to the next room there was a wall full of black and white squares which looked uneven from far way but dead even once you got close.  Our last room was an illusion used in LOTR, there room was on a slight slant and you went through a big doorway at one end and looked tiny then walked up a slight incline where the floor and ceiling got closer together and you looked tiny.  After that we hit the gift shop and bizarre roman type toilets before taking our comedy holding up the tower shot before we hit the road again.  On our way we stopped by a gorgeous lake with mountains in the background for lunch and then Garston, New Zealands most inland village before continuing onto our next destination.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Haast Pass

Thunder Creek Waterfall

Slideshow Print this entry Share Wanaka hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry