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Rachel's Travels...
6/11 - Left Fox to go to Wanaka. Caught the Intercity bus which took about 5 hours. The drive went past lovely scenery. On the left was lush rainforest and on the right was the coast and the Tasman sea. The driver stopped at a couple of nice spots to take photos. These included Knights Point, where there was also a seal colony, Ship Cove. Stopped at a salmon farm for a break and then left the west coast and moved inland. We had lunch at a small place called Haast; from what I could sea there is nothing to do there. We drove for a bit then stopped at a lovely waterfall called Thunder Creek Falls, which was in Mt Aspiring National Park. The whole area was mainly mountains many still with snow on them - it was beautiful.
Half way through the mountains was the official end of the West Coast and it was easy to see it. The flora changed from lush rainforest to dry beech forest. The drive was now along flat plains, but surrounded by mountains. We then reached Lake Hawea which was beautiful and then Lake Wanaka.
My hostel was called the Purple Cow and I was in a female 4 share with an ensuite - luxury only having to share a bathroom with 3 other people!
The weather was amazing, so I immediatley went out for a walk. Went down to the lake. It was beautiful and had snow capped mountains in the background - I cant describe just how beautiful it was. I kept taking photos! Did a 2 hour walk up to Waterfall Creek. Was slightly disapointed to find that there wasn't actually a waterfall, just a creek that was called waterfall creek!
One of the girls in my room was going with a few others to the Paradiso cinema to see Bourne Supremacy so I tagged along too. The cinema was really cool - instead of chairs there were sofas and there was even a yellow morris minor car that you could sit in. The film finnished about 11pm and there were no clouds so I could see the stars really clearly. I've never seen so may stars - it was really pretty.
7/11 - The weather was nice again today so I went on another walk. Decided to climb Mt Iron which was about 2km outside of town. Right opposite the start of the walk was Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World so I went in there first. They have a maze that is 1.5km of turns. The idea is to reach all four corner towers and then to make your way back to the start to exit. Took just over an hour to find all four corners. I thought I would have no problem finding the start as I had got there loads of times earlier without meaning to. But no, I couldn't find it and after 30 minutes of looking, with tired feet and the realization that I still had to climb a mountain, I cheated and went out a side door.
They have other things there including a wall of really good holograms, a tilted room that really confuses your balance and sense of direction - water and pool balls appear to go uphill. It also made me feel a bit sick so I didn't stay in there too long. There is a gallery of faces that follow you where ever you go - that was a cool trick - the faces turned to face where ever you were. Then I went into Ammes room of illusion. If you stood in one corner of the room you looked really small and if you stool in the other you looked massive - that was good and I had my photo taken in there. Outside was also the Leaning Tower of Wanaka.
Then I left to climb my mountain; it was probably more of a steep hill actually but it was hard going! At the top was a 360 degree view that was stunning. I was so knackered at this point so I started the climb back. Got to Wanaka uploaded my photos, bought some food and went back to the hostel to have a really long shower. Didn't do much in the evening - cooked some food and wrote up my journal. There were two new girls in my room, one who lives in Easton, Bristol and the other used to live in Bristol but now lives in Kenilworth about 3 streets away from Dad - its a small world!
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