Wanaka :)

After a couple of days in QT after the Routeburn, I headed back to Wanaka. I loved it when I stayed there for a week or so during the winter, but I was unsure whether I needed to go back again during my 'mop-up' trip round NZ, but fortunately, my friend Anna (who I met in Taupo when I was there for 3 days and then again in Milford Sound) was there and she was going to celebrate her birthday so that made my mind up for me!

So I arrived around lunchtime and met up with Anna, and we decided to go for a hike up Mt Iron. It was a good climb up there and we had lovely views of Wanaka and lake Hawea, and Breast hill and Breast peak too! After some comedy photo shots, we headed down the hill to Puzzling world. We had both been there before, but the cafe is free to go into and there are loads of wooden puzzles to do at the tables. We had a great (if not a little frustrating!!) couple of hours. There was one puzzle in particular that we were both struggling with. It said the average person can solve it in half an hour... Well half an hour came and went, with much swearing and cursing! We askedthe staff to give us a few hints... Another half hour later we were still no closer to solving the bloody thing! We got more help from another staff member and I eventually solved it after another 20 minutes or so - phew!!


The next day was Annas birthday and one of the girls in the hostel baked her some cookies which were delicious so we had them for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day chilling out in the sunshine. We had hoped we were going to go out on a boat in the afternoon as the owner of the hostel had offered earlier in the week, but he changed his mind which was a disappointment, but we still had a nice day in the sunshine anyway. We had a bbq for tea and headed out to the field on the lakefront to go to the drive in movie to see Toy Story 3. We didnt have a car but a girl who works at the hostel has a camper van with her boyfriend so we went and sat on the floor next to that so we could hear the dialogue (you need to tune your radio into a frequency to hear the sound). We had wine and popcorn and rugs to keep us warm, it was a really fun night.

The next day was again lovely and sunny and spent sunbathing. Anna was also teaching me how to tie a knot in a cherry stalk using your mouth, so that afternoon I was practicing that - dread to think what people thought I was doing - I must have been pulling some funny faces! I went for a big long walk the next day round the side of Lake Wanaka. It was a gorgeous day and I headed out towards Glendhu. It was a really pretty walk, not a cloud in the sky and loads of people were out on the lake wake boarding and generally having fun. I climbed a hill just off the track and got some lovely views of the lake from there. There were loads of rabbits around, it felt like watership down! When I got back I bumped into Anna and co who were just off to the beach so I grabbed my stuff adn joined them for some sunbathing and beer. It was so lovely and hot and we jumped in the lake off the jetty - it was great fun! And the daylight stays around for so long - it was 6pm and the sun was still so high in the sky, it was great! I love Wanaka!!