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Everyone on the bus wasn't too pleased to find out that we had a 7.30am start this morning, especially after the tiring walk we had done the previous day until the early evening at Franz Josef! There was a reason we had to leave early though the reason being that in order to catch the perfect mirror reflection of Mount Cook on Lake Matheson we had to be there early which we was as it was only drive from Rainforest Retreat, our hostel in Franz Josef! After getting many good photos of the Lake in all its glory, we set off on an hour long walk around the Lake before we arrived back where we started and the majority of people still hadn't learnt to have breakfast before we left the hostel so they had breakfast at the cafe by Lake Matheson, the food did look great but it was so expensive, and the amount spent on it would not have been justifiable! The pictures of the lake are unique because you can hold the picture the right way up or upside down and it will look the same because of the way the Lake reflects the surroundings like a mirror would!
From Lake Matheson we continued our journey towards Wanaka! We passed through the township of Haast, and then headed into the mountains and bid farewell to the coastline, the scenery dramatically changed throughout the journey, we drove up alongside the Haast River which was totally gorgeous before crossing the bridge at the Gates of Haast! From here we continued to head up the Haast Pass and into the Mount Aspiring National Park, the pass is the lowest pass over the main divide, a mere 563 metres above sea level, as we passed through the Haast pass our driver pointed out huge cracks in the mountains surrounding the pass signifying the fault lines associated with the main divide! We stopped here to grab a photo of the amazing waterfalls that flow down the Haast River, as we made our way up over the mountains. We made a short stop at a nearby shop to get food supplies for lunch before we were back on the road heading down the eastern side of the main divide; we continued to track over towards Makarora, a wilderness stopover boasting a population of a whole 60! We stopped for a short walk and picture stop of the magnificent scenery and once again boarded the bus only to find that it had been bombarded with sand flies which everyone was quick to splat against the windows using whatever means possible to eliminate the pests! Once the sand fly population on our bus had been radically deduced we continued our journey and an hour or so from Makarora took us through to Wanaka where we entered the Otago region with its stunning lakes district and imposing mountain ranges! Wanaka is commonly known as the headquarters of Mount Aspiring National Park!
On the way to the picturesque spot we skirted past the fifth largest lake in New Zealand, Lake Wanaka, before we crossed over to Lake Hawea, where we stopped to get pictures of the spectacular views! Lake Wanaka is on the edge of a pristine alpine lake and is surrounded by the spectacular scenery of Mount Aspiring National Park.
The township of Wanaka was only a short drive from our photo stop at Lake Hawea, and we arrived at Base Backpackers where we were staying at around 3pm, but it took them about an hour to get us all checked in, and after a settling in period and just a general meander around the small town and a visit to the local supermarket which was right next door to Base to stock up on food supplies it was already time for dinner, I had chosen a packet pasta and sauce today which was beef and black bean sauce flavour and although it was delicious there was not a lot of it! After dinner I chilled out in the movie room with a few others where we watched the Da Vinci Code and I munched on some Cadburys (yes Cadburys....not cheap stuff) chocolate which I hadn't had in a long long time because it was on offer, we then started to watch a bit of cricket after the film had finished and then it was off to bed at around 11.30pm!
I decided to jump off the bus in Wanaka and stay for two nights as the kiwi bus only stops for one night there, which meant I had to leave all the people that I had been travelling with for over a week down the West Coast as they were heading into Queenstown but I would still be able to meet up with them a day later as most people stay many nights in Queenstown. This meant that I got to have a lie in for the first time in many days which I really appreciated, but it did mean that by the time I had got showered and had my breakfast it was already approaching midday, and I still hadn't done anything! So for the afternoon I decided to go for a walk up Mount Iron, which is a Mountain about a 25 minute walk from Base just on the edge of town, but once I climbed the 45 minute yet steep and demanding hill to get to the top it gave spectacular 360 panoramic views over the whole of Lake Wanaka, Wanaka township and the surrounding areas, it was also a really clear day which meant that I was able to see for miles, I sat up here for a while to eat my lunch and take in the views before I started to head down and make my way back into town, before I went back to the hostel I took a gentle stroll around the lake, which was quite relaxing in the beautiful sunshine. Once back at the hostel at just gone 4, I met the new arrivals from the two new Kiwi buses that had just arrived who I would be travelling with the next day, and decided to watch the movie 'Old School' with a few of them in the early evening, then I had my dinner which this night was another packet pasta meal of Macaroni Cheese which again was good but there weren't much there! So it was good that I some chocolate left over from the previous night to eat while we watched yet another film for that evening's entertainment, there were loads of us crammed into this fairly small movie room, there was literally no room for any more, it was full to capacity and we watched this Gangster movie which I forget the name of, which I thought I was going to hate but I actually really enjoyed it, after this we all went to bed preparing for Queenstown the next day!
Wanaka was to be the calm before the storm of Queenstown; it was well worth an extra night in Wanaka as it was such a cool little town with a stunning view wherever you looked as the whole town was surrounded by mountains in every direction.
Love Toby xxx
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