Wanaka

July 22, 2009

I wanna go to Wanaka. Hee hee. Wanaka is pronounced “WAH-nah-ka”, FYI. We’d decided to stay here in Wanaka two nights so my stuff has exploded all over the floor of the hostel. I think I’ve made myself a little too much at home! I woke up this morning at 8 am so I think I’ve finally adjusted to NZ time. No more 6 am wake ups for me! I hate to think how I’ll do when I get back to Washington. We got ready and had breakfast in the kitchen. I forgot to mention yesterday (in my uber long post) that the Woofer (willing worker on organic farm) here at the hostel is from the US and he came in to use the toaster oven. He laughed and commented that the darn thing only went up to 200 degrees and how can you cook at such a low temperature. I replied, “Do you think it might be in Celsius?” Yep, that was the problem! LOL. Anyway, we had breakfast this morning and headed out to the i-site to see what they might recommend for a day in Wanaka.

At the i-site we were given a map of Wanaka with a bunch of trails listed. I had wanted to come here because I knew that Wanaka is at the base of Mt. Aspiring National Park, a place I’d hiked in last time I was here and absolutely loved. It turns out that it is snowed in and they don’t recommend going there without at least a four wheel drive vehicle. Drat! No Mt. Aspiring beech forests for me this time. That changed our plans considerably because we’d planned to use Wanaka as a base to go off exploring. So, we stuck around Wanaka instead. I also asked about other activities here and the woman at the i-site mentioned a boat out to a nature reserve that looked good. However, they were not going out in the morning because of choppy waves on Lake Wanaka. Drat! We therefore settled on a hike so we went out to the lake (which is super long) and walked along the trail. I think that in the summer the trail must be green and lush but in the winter all of the trees are bare and the grass is blah. Wanaka is not green the way most of New Zealand is. The lake is a brilliant blue though and snow capped mountains loom overhead. We walked for quite a while until we came to an area of the lake that lent itself to beautiful views. We took tons of pictures, as usual, and then headed back. When we started the hike, it was sooooo cold out. I had to fish out my scarf and hat for the first time, truly feeling like it was winter. By the time we got back the sun had warmed everything up and it was no longer scarf weather. Yay!

After the hike we went over to “Puzzling World”. Yep, it’s cheesy. It’s a touristy place in Wanaka full of optical illusions including a room that is uphill so that you look like you’re leaning when you’re standing straight. Water flows ‘uphill’ and when you roll a ball it looks like it’s rolling uphill. There was also a room with 100+ statue faces following you around the room. It was just like the ghosts in The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland only many more of them. There was also a room where one side makes you look huge and the other side makes you look tiny. Finally, there were a bunch of holograms, some better than others on a wall. After entertaining ourselves with that we went over to the labyrinth to see how we’d do. You’re supposed to find four towers in all four corners of the maze before exiting. Raven and I couldn’t find the first one and decided to get out if we could. Sure enough, once we voiced that we found one. A few minutes later we found the next one. Raven figured out the third one and then we found an exit before finding the fourth, which was fine by both of us. Enough, already. It was funny watching other people go through though. Some Israelis were giving each other directions “Yamina, yamina! Bo! Lo! Kein!” There were two little kids tearing through and Raven asked one if they’d been before. They said yes so she asked them if they come here all the time. They replied that they’re from Australia and then tore off in the maze again.

After Puzzling World, we headed back into town and went to lunch at the Cheeky Monkey. How could we resist? I ate a chicken, brie and apricot burger with fries and I’ve regretted it all day since. Blah. It was yummy but I feel gross after eating it. I think I’m going to hate stepping on the scale when I come back home. I’ve been really bad on this trip. *sigh* We then decided to go for a walk around town because we both felt blah. We pretty much covered all of the shops in town and Raven commented that she was done with Wanaka. We went back to our room at 3 or so and went online for a while before I promptly fell asleep and took a long nap. Not sure what the deal is with the naps every afternoon lately. I’d been chocking it up to being in the car but today … well, I napped. We’ve taken it easy this evening, walking to the store and then having a light dinner and now we’re in our room online again. Tomorrow, like I mentioned yesterday, we’re going to Dunedin and I hope we get to see penguins. Yay!!!

Oh, the heater is working today so we're actually nice and warm. Phew!