Blogs from Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

The morning was a bit grey and cloudy, so Kaitlin was a afraid her hike might not happen! She slept a bit more, had a leisurely bowl of cereal and lazed around town until the clouds lifted and drifted--about 11:00. It turned out to be hot and brilliantly sunny, and Kaitlin eagerly drove sunny to the Diamond Lake/Rocky Mountain tramping trail. With a spray of sunscreen and an adjustment of purse-come-waist pack thingamajigger, Kaitlin started up the trail. Every part of the trail held new mountain beauty, with a view of the ever-smaller-looking lake never far. Diamond lake was only a ten-minute walk from the bottom, but it was a lovely little secluded-feeling gem. Onward and upward Kaitlin went to the first lookout point over Lake Wanaka...then the steep and difficult climb to the top of ... read more

With an extra stretch and a snooze, Kaitlin rolled out of bed, ecstatic to go canyoning! She grabbed a handful of muesli and skipped down to Deep Canyon Adventures, where she met her guide, Annette, and two fellow canyoner guys from Denmark. The four set off in the manual van, eating up pavement and gravel to the location of “Big Nige.” Annette fitted Kaitlin and the others in their super hot outfits--and with their gear rolled up in their wetsuit/harness backpacks, they climbed up the mountain to begin their descent. Annette taught the three how to abseil/rappel, and the adventure began! They spent four hours in Big Nice, abseiling down waterfalls--water pounding on their heads and shoulders, sliding down rocks, leaping into deep pools, climbing on boulders, floating around the base of waterfalls and ziplining. ... read more

We took the opportunity, before Em started her new job, to head down to the Southern Lakes for a few days break. We based ourselves in an apartment near the shores of Lake Wanaka. We went for different walks each morning: along the lake shore, up to Diamond Lake in the Mount Aspiring National Park and around Queenstown Gardens on the shores of Lake Wakatipu (where we observed the fascinating game of frisbee golf). In the afternoons we explored: Queenstown, Lake Hawea and finally got the chance to go to Puzzling World. Again, just wanted to post some photos, including some stunning shots of Lake Pukaki, Aoraki/Mount Cook and Lake Tekapo. A great time was had by all, although we wish we'd seen a few more Lakes...... read more

The drive down from Franz Josef was easily our most spectacular yet, with a back drop of snow capped mountains, lush forest winding forests and mirror blue lakes. After driving for around 4 hours we reached a town about 50 minutes from Queenstown called Wanaka. We had origninally planned to just pass through this town to view the large lake, but on arrival I think we both immediately realised that we had to spend the night there as it looked so nice and it was now approaching 7.30 and after our glacier climbed we were both quite tired. We pulled up in a small car park opposite the huge lake and next to a field which had been holding the annual labour weekend fair and planned to have a quick bite to eat and get an ... read more

This morning we visited the franz Josef Glacier and aparentley it use to be over the valley floor however it is melting faster than it is growing. dad challenged us to run/jog to the top of a lookout and if we did he would buy us a donut factory (we later found out he meant donut machine), I reached the top running while caleb and eventuly made it (puffing viggeresly) we later went to fox glacier and found out there was recently a rockfall. I thought the same about both of the glaciers scince it was a long walk and though it is titanic it's just ice while dad thought it would cool his beer well. Bailey... read more