Wanaka Area

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Wanaka
November 26, 2008



It’s a rare thing for me to read the same book twice or watch a movie twice, so Joe was surprised when I asked if we could drive up to Glenorchy again this morning because I wanted to see it again. It’s 50 kilometers of winding road from Queenstown, but he was happy to oblige. It was just as beautiful as yesterday, this time there was more sunshine and the water of Wakaputi Lake looked bluer.

After three days in Queenstown, we were finally off over the mountain pass and into the vacationland of the Wanaka area about an hour from Queenstown. The Kiwis love it here, it has many of the same adventure activities as Queenstown, but the town is much smaller and quieter. Lake Wanaka is beautiful and there was a lot of activity on it today, even people swimming.

It was one of those pristine days that you want to put in your pocket and save forever. It was the perfect temperature with no wind and just a few white clouds. It was so good to see and feel the sun after the gray days we’d had lately. We scoped out the town and area and headed up the road to the border of Mt. Aspiring National Park that can be accessed from this area also. We drove on pavement, we drove on gravel, we crossed eight fords (please don’t tell our rental van company), and ended up in paradise. Our digital images don’t come close to showing the sensory overload we felt today. We met one car the entire way and we loved having the road to ourselves. We drove around Lake Wanaka through steep green mountains (some with fresh snow on top), through even greener meadows with sheep and cattle grazing, and along a light aquamarine glacier fed river.
We decided to hike the Rob Roy track that took us through one of the meadows with sheep. Since it is springtime. there were dozens of baby lambs to make us smile, and wildflowers in all the right places. We went over a very high swinging bridge, through a forest trail that followed the river and opened up into a huge field. Then we were back in the trees to climb some more. One section of the track on the side of a steep cliff had washed out recently and that area challenged me greatly. I just knew I was going to slide down the cliff into the fast moving river, but with a little help from my friend I made it. Once across that it occurred to me that I would have to come back the same way and it weighed on my mind a bit during the hike. But, a mountaintop glacier kept playing peek-a-boo with us through the trees and that was motivation to keep moving. Plus, it smelled oh, so good! Our reward for the day was a good close view of the glacier, but to me everything was beautiful.

The only downer of the day was when Joe burst my bubble by telling me that the bird that I had been eyeing was not the elusive (to me anyway) gray warbler, but was merely the female tomtit. Fortunately, it wasn’t a very big bubble.

I learned something today that I guess I should have known considering my years on earth. I discovered that sheep have very long tails, but rubberbands are put around their tails when they are young and they fall off. Dad, if you are reading this, I’m sure you could have told me this if I’d ever have asked you. I was commenting to Joe about the long tail on a lamb that was crossing in front of the car as we were leaving, and wouldn’t you know that baby’s tail fell off right in the middle of the road in front of us! It bothered me to see this a lot more than it bothered him to lose it.

Also, as we were leaving we saw a waterfall with a striking rainbow. That held us up for a few minutes as we let that visual treat sink in.

Back in Wanaka we had a beer at the local brewery where we were the oldest people by at least 20 years, then a great lamb dinner at a nice restaurant. Funny how I was bothered by a lamb losing his tail, but it sure didn’t bother me to eat one.

Our van is in a cool park tonight overlooking the lights of Wanaka. Those lights didn’t stop us from saluting the southern cross and the upside down Orion once more. Never get tired of looking at the night sky here, it is so different. It was a very good day on the South Island of New Zealand.

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Photos

Click on this one!
This was the rainbow in the waterfall we saw as we were driving away from Mt. Aspiring NP. Too pretty!

Lake Wakaputi (Again)
I just love this area.

Darn Duck
Just as Joe was trying to take the previous photo, this duck walked right in front of the camera

Trailhead
This is in Mt. Aspiring NP, it was one of the greatest day hikes we've ever had.

Lamb's Tail
Put this in so you can see a tail before it has fallen off.

Mt. Aspiring Hike
This is me on a swing bridge on the trail.

Comments

[Sandy]

Suggestion
Eat the duck.