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A stop at the Lake Matherson was our first stop on the way to Wanaka, actually this is a lie, we stopped on the side of the road on a hill out of Franz Josef. This stop was not intentional though, as the bus we were on broke down. After about an hour of waiting and our driver disappearing to go and find a mechanic, we were back under way again.
The first planned stop of the day was at Lake Matherson, where there was a chance to have some brekkie and take a wonder down to the lake, which we were told we would get some good pictures from. We decided on something to eat first and as we had stopped at a small cafe in the middle of nowhere it was far from cheap. Luckily for us we had been given $20 when checking out at Franz Josef (a key deposit, which we had already been given once, therefore they paid us $20 to leave), which we put towards breakfast.
After we had finished we then decided to go and walk down to Lake Matherson, an option that for some reason, alot of people off the bus had decided against. We didn't let this stop us though so off we went. It was about a 20 minute walk down to the lake, through woodland and when we finally arrived, it's fair to say that we were dissapointed. The weather again played it's part but the Lake in the greyness was some what uninspiring. Anywho, at least we had made the walk down, unlike alot of others.
Back on the bus we contined our journey to Wanaka, cutting through the stunning landscape in our big green bus. We had one more stop before we arrived in Wanaka, which was the Thunder Creek Falls. We were told by our driver than there were alot of sandflies down by the waterfall, which will pretty much attempt to eat you alive, but before swatting or squashing them you first had to check if it was a "big" or a "small" one, with the small ones being protected and fine's in place if we were seen squashing them. Now we have no idea if this was true or not but rather than risk it, we left them well alone and just got bitten instead.
Despite being treated like an afternoon snack for the sandflies the falls we worth it. They also gave an optical illusion if you stared at them for a few seconds, before looking at the surrounding landscape (it made it look like the surrounding hills we moving), which only clever people can see. We could both see the illusion so that's got to say something for us.
After arriving in Wanaka we then found our hostel. We had booked a private for our three nights in Wanaka and after being shown round the hostel quickly we were shown our room. It again was outside on its own (a bit like the National Park accommodation) and in the form of a shed, with "Love Shack" on the door. Belle was slightly disappointed and in the words of her "why do I always book sheds?!", however look can be diseaving as it was really quite nice on the inside.
After popping to the supermarket and getting the bargain of three avacardo's for $2, instead of one for $2.99, guacomoli ? was on the menu for dinner and that was about our night.
Day two and the sun was out in full force, probably the nicest weather since we were all the way back up in Nelson. It was shorts, sun glasses, ice cream and a wander on the shore of Lake Wanaka, 2 minutes from the hostel. The perfectly clear lake is surrounded by mountains and on a clear day like it was, it was quite the sight. On our way back towards the hostel we decided to have a beer in the warm afternoon sun. Belle went for a cider, whilst I went for a "award winning local beer.' Now I have obviously got rather different taste in beer to those who awarded the prize to my chosen beer, for me it tatsed slightly like soap. Oh well at least the weather was nice and it wasn't so bad it was undrinkable (it would have to be really bad for that), I think Belle was happy sticking to the cider, as she was 'umming & arrring' on whether to get the beer.
Later than evening we went to the supermarket to stock up on some bits for the following day.
With beautiful sunshine once again, as we had hoped, we set off from the hostel on our last day in Wanaka. We walked a couple of km's out of town towards Mt. Iron before climbing to its summit. A steep and slightly tough half hour later we had reached the top, which with the clear skies gave 360 degree views out across Wanaka and the surrounding valley. We have come to expect good views from the New Zealand country side, but this really was postcard perfect. Once we had our breath back we tucked into our supplies we had bought the previous night, a packed lunch. Another couple had the same idea as us, however they were easily a good 40 years older than us, so that made us feel slightly old, not that we were that bothered though, we were hungry.
After taking in the view we headed back down and made our way back into town. We stopped at the supermarket (again, I know) and bought a couple of beers to have in the afternoon sun, we decided against the "award" winners this time. Our hostel had a nice little back garden and was a bit of a sun trap, so that's where we spent the rest of the afternoon / evening. We also made use of the free hot tub the hostel had, as the sun slowly went down, the mountains in the back ground, we waited for our dinner of jacket potato's to cook. We had planned to nuke them, but somehow the microwave took a strong disliking to Belle and stopped working, therefore we had to use the small table top oven, which took a grand total of two hours to cook (or at least 80% cook) the potato's.
Belle here, as we were walking back down the hill Matt noticed that my back and shoulders were getting a little red. Being the accessory mad person I am I had luckily taken a little scarf which I had to use to sheild my upper body from the bright sunshine. On closer inspection back in our shed, I had some very definite strap marks and it seems I now catch the sun very easily. I was in a little pain and have now learnt my lesson, if the sun is out, the cream is on. I think Matt was a mixture of relieved that he hadn't burnt and jealous that he doesn't catch the sun quite as easy as me. I spent the rest of our lovely afternoon in the shade and had to be careful not to get my arms, shoulders and top of my back in the 40 degree hot tub water! Got a nice bit of colour now though so every cloud and that.
Our three days in Wanaka seemed to have gone very quickly (a bit like our whole trip) and we both really liked the little town. The location and the scenery are amazing, along with a nice hostel and beautiful weather, it really made for a nice three nights.
- comments
del $20 to leave eh? i'll just make a note of that. just my little joke!!!