Weturn to Wanaka

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Day 536 (15.09.08)

We were able to use Tony's computer at Buscot to catch up on the blog a little during the morning having struggled to find time (or an open internet cafe) over the last few weeks of busy travel. Once we'd got a fair amount sorted we packed up and said goodbye to Tony who'd made us feel so at home during the past few days.

We made the drive across the dry but lovely countryside over the Lindis Pass on our return to Wanaka where we hoped to find better weather than on our last visit and do a little of the walking that the area offers.

We arrived to a bright but windy afternoon and headed up to Mt. Iron for a walk which took us to the summit of the hill and gave us great views across Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.

We found a cheap, basic campsite for the night, put on our finest clothes and went into town for a quick drink. It was pretty quiet in the pub being a monday but it had some board games so we settled in for a game of scrabble (we know how to live it up hey?!).

Day 537 (16.09.08)

Along with two large ski areas, Wanaka is also on the doorstep of the Mt Aspiring National Park, a great place for tramping. We'd found out about a 3-4 hour up and back walk that sounded great so we made the drive into the park down a pretty cool road with several fords for us to cross.

The weather in the park wasn't great, extremely windy and with a little rain in the air but we weren't to be deterred and set off on the Rob Roy Valley walk in high spirits.

Crossing a swingbridge across the river was fairly exciting as this time no jumping was required to make it swing, the wind did that on its own! For the next couple of hours we climbed steadily up through beech forest beside a thundering cascade of milky green water coming down to the river from the many waterfalls pouring down the mountainside. As we climbed higher we began to get views of the Rob Roy Glacier with the best views at the turning point of the walk. It was clear to see the blue ice of the glacier literally hanging onto a shelf on the rock face - fantastic.

After having our lunch quickly in the drizzle we began the journey back down the hill and were assisted in the final stretch along the riverbank by the wind pushing us along. It had been an excellent walk.

The drive back to town was equally as pretty with views across Lake Wanaka to the mountains and company along the route from plenty of sheep, cows and deer.

After a quick wash and brush up we were queuing up for our evening's entertainment at Wanaka's famous Cinema Paradiso. This eccentric little place is a one room affair filled with old armchairs and sofas (and even an old car) for you to relax in to enjoy a movie. A popular place, we'd only managed to get seats for the 6pm film - Troipic Thunder which turned out to be really funny. We loved this quirky cinema - a great place to spend an evening.

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Photos

Ooops bit of a ford...
well we are in a rental car!