Wanaka and Te Anau

It’s a bright, fair day in Wanaka. From our porch at this holiday home we can see a wall of peaks of the Southern Alps, some topped with snow. The tallest of these craggy peaks are about 10,000’. The mountains ring Lake Wanaka, a brilliant blue alpine tarn. Colleen and Ed have rented bikes for the day (very reasonable $30NZ/day) and are traveling some of the scenic bike trails in the area. Dianne has gone off for a meditative walk along the lakeshore. I’ve stayed behind to assist Dave the handyman, who is coming by to help us solve the riddle of low water pressure in the shower, and more important, why we are not getting hot water! A small, but uncomfortable inconvenience.

I will be meeting Dianne in the village for lunch and then we’ll do some exploring. We have one more night here, then tomorrow (Sunday), we’ll have a somewhat longer drive to the small town of Okarito which is in the region of Fox Glacier along the west coast.

To catch up, after checking out of those nifty chalets at the lodge on Thursday, we boarded for a glorious cruise on the Milford Sound. The cruise ship was large and uncrowded, fitted with sails that were mostly for appearance. It was a rainy, misty day, so that the waterfalls were flowing all around us as we moved past 2000’ vertical walls. With our rain gear on, we spent a good part of the cruise on the outer decks, getting good and wet. At several points, the bow of the ship was only a few meters from the waterfall, surrounding us in delicious mist and the roar of falling water. Dianne had a huge smile on a very wet face!

The drive out of the Milford Sound area, back to the motel in Te Anau was every bit as thrilling as the drive in. We pulled in at a few vista points to try to soak in the area as much as possible before leaving. As we moved further inland the skies cleared to blue and the sun shone, another great day. Back at the room in Te Anau, we spent some time getting caught up with blog postings and getting some pictures uploaded to the blog. Dianne and I took a nice late afternoon stroll along the lakefront path on Lake Te Anau ending at a small, picturesque harbor, and then made one last stop at a cool souvenir store before heading back for dinner.

On Friday we were on the road to Wanaka along a highway that a portion of which hung over the eastern edge of lake Wakatipu. This was on the route to Queenstown. We stopped for lunch at a pullout that had a great view of the lake and surrounding peaks of the Remarkables range. There we met a couple from Orinda, Ca, enjoying their last NZ meal before flying back home. They had an amazing story about the host at the first bed and breakfast they stayed at lending them $1000 after they had lost a wallet, leaving them without cash or credit cards. A stranger on the street, hearing their story, had already given them $200 and the rental car company had let them have their rental car using the imprint of the only credit card they had, even though it was cancelled due to the lost wallet. When we met them they were very sad about leaving New Zealand, having had a wonderful vacation, even though it started out with a disaster. This was another example of generosity of spirit and friendliness that we have all felt since coming to this country.

On the scenic route from Queenstown to Wanaka we drove up a number of switchbacks through the easternmost slopes of the Crown Range. We stopped to watch some paragliders doing aerobatics accompanied by their squeals of delight (or were those screams of panic?) This area is popular for winter sports, but appeared semi-arid this time of year. As we zipped along we admired the many willows displaying early color changes of autumn.

Now we enter the Wanaka Lake region and can see snow peaked mountains as we descend in the valley. Wanaka is a small touristy town with some charm and availability of all kinds of recreational activities. Many shops and businesses play on the town name, we found the Wanakayak, Wanataxi and the Wanaka Bakapaka, as well as a plethora of cycling shops and places offering various excursions.

Colleen got us a great deal on this lovely, quite roomy home just outside of town. We quickly unpacked, then went out to buy groceries for another great meal, topped off with a fine local wine. Afterwards we hiked about a mile back down the hill, to do some exploration on foot while seeking out a liquor shop to purchase a bit of brandy for some late evening warming.

We ended this fine day sitting on the deck, sipping brandy and gazing at the mountains glowing in the last light of day and then watched for stars gradually appearing amid the gauzy clouds.