Blogs from Wanaka, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

This was a real fun day! First of all, no driving :-) I needed a rest from that... In the morning we went to a museum in Wanaka called Puzzling World. It has a great exhibition of illusions, a maze, and mind cracking games room. We were actually first to arrive to the museum and we had the illusions rooms all to ourselves. I attach pictures from the giant and the dwarf room, illusion used in Lord of the Rings movie. See me and Shiri exchange our heights :-) One room presented holograms, one room had 168 faces on the walls, and they all seemed to follow you when you walk. The illusion is so real, it was amazing, although after I understood the trick it didn't work anymore :-( The last room is built slanted, ... read more

We meant to wake up really early to go to a lake called Lake Matheson, where you are supposed to see reflections of Mount Cook in the water and it's beautiful in sunrise or right after. But the night before we met some nice people in the backpacker and we chatted too long... So we still went the all way around the fanmous TINY lake and the views of the high mountains were suberb but the reflections were really poor. No fight to the beauty I saw in Norway on the way to the glacier there, and right from the road... Shai if you find the picture and can send me a copy I will put it here for comparison :-) Then I drove all the long way to Wanaka, during which we stopped in ... read more

New years day. To celebrate the New Year and recover from hangovers we went on a walk. Laura, Clare and I went walking; Phil went to celebrate the English New Years with a pint at 12pm. The Rob Roy Track in Mount Aspiring National Park, is one of the most wonderful places I have been. The steep, interesting 2hr climb to the tree line through native woodland along the valley of the Rob Roy Stream is so beuatiful. The hangover left after only a few moments. At certain points a view of sky, mountain peaks, glaciers just below, waterfalls dropping thousands of feet down sheer valley walls onto lush green grassland and forest and the bubbling rapids of the Rob Roy Stream are all visible in one view. At the top of the walk at the ... read more

New Years Eve, lots of people had asked me where I was going to be for New Years Eve, I hadn’t known. It turned out to be Wanaka, the backpackers - the Purple Cow - was nice I had met some nice new people who would also be there for the evening. Chatting after breakfast with Clare, Phil, Laura and Tripp (all English except the American Tripp) we all decided to head off to Stuart Lawson’s Puzzling World. Puzzling World features the leaning tower of Wanaka, the room full of following faces and a three-dimensional maze, plus lots of holograms and other curious things. After wandering around the curious and puzzling section of puzzling world we decided to tackle the maze. The maze is made from large 7ft fence panels, a couple of bridges and four ... read more