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Published: July 28th 2009
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Wanaka Sunset
Time for a Kinks cover version? Where was I? A question I find myself asking myself with increasing regularity these days. And usually the answer is I don't know. Quite often these questions are asked out loud. But I better not say anymore, or you'll all be ringing psychiatrists. And frankly, I dont want that.
Right, so Wanaka. What a lovely place. I knew I'd be spending time in both Wanaka and Queenstown, but on the advice of various people, and my own intuition, Id decided to spent the majority in Wanaka. However, the major thing I wanted to do in this general area of the country was take a trip to Milford Sound, which is only possible from... yup you guessed it, Queenstown. With my very limited time, and a desire to spend the maximum possible time on Stewart Island, this meant just 1 day in Wanaka.
With just the 1 day, I decided skiing was out of the question, which meant a walk. Surprise surprise. This time, I went up to the top of Mt Iron, then around the lake back into town, taking around 5 hours at a dawdling pace. It was a beautiful walk on a beautiful day, truly peaceful, with
the various mountain ranges rising up behind Lake Wanaka. On another note, I also beat my world skimming record with a 12. I celebrated this with a snickers. Now, there is currently a promotion running in New Zealand to win a free snickers with every one you buy. This time I was a winner. I celebrated this with another snickers.
A beautiful sunset over Lake Wanaka was the signal for me to leave. Destination, Queenstown. For a lot of people, Queenstown is the Mecca of New Zealand. And it shows, as it was by far the most touristy place I've been to. I however, am not most people, and to be perfectly honest, if it wasnt the easiest way for me to get to Milford Sound with my limited time I probably wouldn't have come here. I'm going to give Milford the honour of its own entry, so I shall carry on discussing Queenstown.
It's easy to see why Queenstown got so popular. Its stuck right slap bang on a nice lake, and has a Remarkable mountain range nearby (get the pun there?) Quite frankly, the location is beautiful. But, I could compare it to Bariloche in Argentina.
Beautiful location, yet a tacky town. That's in my view anyway. You're meant to do some sort of extreme activity in Queenstown, apparently its the law. But I'm really not fussed about bungy jumping, and skydiving is out of my budget, so I thought I'd give it a miss. But then I saw some folks paragliding above the town, and thought it looked fun, so I gave that a go. It was alright, hardly an adrenaline rush, but I wasn't really expecting that. Quite cool to fly though.
Milford Sound kind of intervened here, but I'm going to take you straight to Dunedin, as I made my way to Stewart Island. I stayed one night in Dunedin, and managed to visit, and walk up, the World's Steepest Street. Not much to say apart from it was jolly steep. I also got the worlds cheapest fish and chips, at around a quid a throw. Bargainous. And they say New Zealand is expensive.
Another stop on the way to Stewart Island was Invercargill. On the bus back from Milford Sound (which you havent read about yet) they played a film called The World's Fastest Indian, about a bloke from Invercargill
who set land speed records on an old banger motorbike. It was a really good film, so on my way through Invercargill I stopped by the DIY store to check it out. The only other thing of note that happened there is the teachers from a group of water polo players staying in the same hostel as me gave me a load of grean beans to have with my tea (the meal, not the drink).
And on that thrilling note I'll leave you for now.
Stewart
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