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Published: November 13th 2008
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For our final morning at the motor park we were blessed with a perfect view of the mountains around us. The cloud had really lifted and, although it was chilly, there was no rain.
Matt decided that we had to drive to the glacier once more seeing as the view was so clear. We did one of the walks from the car park that Matt had explored without me the previous day, it took us to a beautiful still pool of water that gave a perfect reflection of the surrounding scenery. The snow capped mountains were in the background. It was just breathtaking.
After taking lots more photographs we drove to Lake Matheson - probably the most photographed place in NZ. When the lake is flat it gives the most beautiful reflection of the mountains and trees. Unfortunately for us it was full of ripples so there was no chance of getting the perfect photo today but we enjoyed a walk around the lake anyway. The track took us through overhanging trees which were all smothered in bright green moss, across wobbly bridges and alongside little babbling brooks.
After an hour of so in the cold we were
more than ready to go to the Matheson Café for a bowl of hot chocolate and a big slice of cake.
The road to Wanaka was long but beautiful, with the most spectacular mountain and lake scenery we’ve ever seen. We had to keep stopping every few corners to take photos. There were also some stunning beaches, including one that was strewn with so much driftwood that we just spent ages walking around staring at all the beautiful roots and logs on display as though it were a gallery.
On the drive I read the leaflets and guidebooks to check out what we could do in Wanaka. The most obvious place for us was Cinema Paradiso; described by Lonely Planet, amongst others, as a must see. Time was ticking on so we rushed to check into the campsite, grabbed a bowl of soup and drove back into town to have a look.
Hellboy 2 was due to start a few minutes after we arrived. Not a film we were particularly interested in seeing but we just had to watch a film in this cinema.
The front door opened into a café/bar area that felt really laid
back. There was a chalk board listing some really tasty sounding, great value food, and at the bar was a display of home baked cookies and a list of homemade ice cream. We ordered ourselves a glass of wine to take into the film.
The cinema room itself felt like a large living room on a slight slope. It was crammed with large sofas and armchairs of all shapes and sizes, and you could even sit into a yellow beetle car that had been decked out with cushions. We selected a big two seater squashy sofa in the front row and settled down with our wine.
The place was fantastic. We didn’t mind not having the best quality surround sound, and having a slight line down the middle of the screen. It was just cool to be able to stretch out on a sofa, take your shoes off and relaxi with a glass of wine while watching the film. During the interval, Matt joined the bar queue to get another round of drinks and watched everyone order warm, freshly baked cookies. Unfortunately by the time he reached the front they were all gone. Luckily we’d pre-ordered some garlic
bread and dips so he collected it on a tray to eat on our laps instead (you could actually pre order full meals to eat on trays during the film but we‘d just eaten and were trying not to spend). A few minutes later we were tucking into it as the film started up again.
The film itself was one of the worst we’d seen in a long time. We kept laughing for a long time afterwards about how such famous actors had lowered themselves to be part of it, but we were still really glad we went. It was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had and I’ve been to a lot of different cinemas in my time!
When we arrived back at the campsite we spent some time looking up at the stars. This was the first place we’d stayed with low light pollution and it gave us the most amazing view of the stars. Unfortunately it wasn’t as warm as the other placed we’d done our star gazing so after a few minutes we were ready to go back indoors to thaw out in front of the fan heater.
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