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Yesterday, Saturday, I left Franz Josef early in the morning to head to Lake Wanaka. I know it was early as it was still dark. One of the best beds since leaving home which made getting up even harder. Not long out of Franz, we stopped at Fox Glacier. We managed to get some good vies of the glacier, though the main purpose of this stop was to walk around Lake Matheson, and get some good views of Mount Cook. Sadly, the postcard picture with the mountains reflecting in the lake didnt happen, stupid ducks!! Nice little walk, and helped wake me up!
From here it was fairly gung-ho to get to Wanaka early afternoon. We did however make a short stop at Thunder Creek Falls, where a 2min walk got us right to the base of the falls, and a chance for some good pictures, including ones of me "drinking" the waterfall. The drive to and from the falls was very impressive, as it took us through the Haast Pass and the gates of Haast, a narrow bridge, over a fast flowing river. The final bit of the drive took us along Lake Wanaka, through to Lake Havea, and
then back to Lake Wanaka and our destination of the town of Wanaka. What a location!! Right at the edge of a massive lake, surrounded by big snow-capped mountains, very much wow! Though it was quite chilly here!
My bed for the night was at the Wanaka Hotel, no this is not a typo, it does say hotel! They have clearly converted some rooms into dorms by turning twin rooms into rooms with 2 bunk beds, but it was cool. Proper room, nice en suite, and a TV. The coolest thing about the TV was that it was linked to a central DVD player showing films through the day. Max and I paid the driver for our trip to Milford Sound coming up, and we then walked to Mount Iron, and up Mount Iron. The simple up hill climb to the summit was actually very hard work on the calves, but it was well worth it for the views, despite the low cloud covering the top half of alll the mountains. The overall walk took us about 2.5hours door to door. We then went to the supermarket to buy food for tea and breakfast. I BOUGHT SOME MEAT! First
time since leaving home. My Pasta and sausages was amazing! haha. The same again tonight since it was soo good. Why dont i buy meat? more expensive, cant buy in small enough amounts to suit travelling from place to place!
After tea, chilled out in the kitchen getting to know some other people from the bus, before going to Barry's room to watch flight of the phoenix on the tv. Not a bad film, though a little silly at times! Film finished around 11 and headed to bed, where we then watched another film, which i fell asleep during.
This morning we had to be on the bus at 9am, not too bad. Last night was THE best bed of the trip, brilliant sleep, and again still dark when i woke up, though soon lit up outside. Went for a quick walk to the lake to get a couple of pictures before heading out of town. We stopped at a place called puzzle land, but i climbed mount iron again with some guys, as the clouds had gone, aka better pictures! Today we were headed for Queenstown.
We made one proper stop (other than a couple of
photos stops) just out of Queenstown at the first commercial bungee site. Here we watched a film about the history of bungee, and also were shown around a little museum showing how things are made, and what is used. Very interesting, though looks very scary! Barry was booked to do a jump here so we, the whole bus, watched him do it. Didnt look to bad, though only 40m. The one people are doing is 130m from a cable car over a valley...mental!
Got into Queenstown around two and checked in to the hostel. All the lads then went up the gondola, paryl to check out the views, but mainly to go luging. We had 5runs in total on these little car things, and it was mental. Enough room to overtake so we had some races, though we did get one injury, thankfully not to me! Was wicked, had soo much fun, and such a laugh, though it was pretty cold up there, maybe i need some gloves!!
The rest of the day holds a bit of a chill out, before we all head out tonight for a bit of a welcome to Queenstown celebration!
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David
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Good Google tip!
Thanks for the tip on looking at google image at the places you are visiting as it brings a totally new dimension to your photoless blogs. You are at some cool looking places.