Wanaka

Trip Start Sep 11, 2008
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Trip End Jun 05, 2009


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Where I stayed
Fern Lodge
(Wanaka hotels)

Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Sunday, January 11, 2009

We drove all the way from Te Anau back to the village of Arrowtown right near Queenstown as theres only one way to go, all the way back. Arrowtown is an old goldminig town and looks like the Wild West, all the old buildings are now tourist boutiques though. We bought some sweets from the Remarkable Sweet Shop named after the mountains and left as it was raining hard and had been all night, the thunder was so loud it woke us several times and rumbled on and on echoing off the mountains. We headed to the original bungy bridge and watched several nutters dive off while we had a little picnic as the rain stopped briefly. Next we went to the Gibbston Valley winery which make the best wine in the area apparently and tried various wines and cheeses. We drove just up the road and along a windy dangerous dirt track on the side of a cliff to Chard Farm winery which was smaller, friendlier, free and with much better wines.
We drove over the Crown range with amazing views, the sun had now come out which made it even better. We went through another tiny ex-goldmining village called Cardrona where I had a look in the river for gold but couldn't see any so got bored and drove on. We got to Wanaka on the shores of Lake Wanaka which has to be the most beautiful lake we have seen and the locals claim it's been described as the best view in the world. We got a great oldskool wood panelled room at Fern Lodge near the lake, climbed up Mount Iron in the evening (it's only small but has 360 degree views of the lake and valleys) and went for a swim in the lake which was bloody freezing, not surprising as theres glaciers nearby.
Next day we drove out 50km to the Rob Roy track to the glacier, the tarmac ran out after 20km though, sorry hire car people we broke the rules. We stopped short of going through the deep fords though and hitched the last 4km. The walk was steep and took 4 hours return, worth it though for great views of the Rob Roy glacier. On the way back we walked the 4km back to the car and took a shortcut through a field by a river. Lucy took her shoes off to walk barefoot in the grass as told to by her Ayurveda guy in India and was stung on the foot when she stood on a bee. When she could walk again we realised we were on a spit of land and had to wade through the freezing water. The silvery grey mud was so fine we started sinking into it but got through OK, slightly scared though.
When we got back to the town we went straight to the Cinema Paradiso where we watched Burn After Reading which was average, but we got to sit in an old Morris Minor with the top chopped off while everyone else sat in old comfy sofas which was cool.
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