Hannah and I wanted to spend a week in Wanaka before heading on to our next big adventure. Not only is it a beautiful city, but our friends, Mike and Chris from Franz Josef are living there too!
On Tuesday the 10th, we hitch hiked our way out of Queenstown. We got picked up by two very nice elderly ladies from Australia who were just driving around NZ to see the views. Once again, I got extremely car sick, which I always feel bad about because people always want to have conversations and it's tough to do that when my eyes are closed and I'm focusing on not puking... Luckily that's where Hannah comes in! The ladies also took a few stops to take some pictures, which I always can appreciate!
The view at the top of the mountain that we zig-zagged up!
Once we got to Wanaka, we quickly reunited with Mike and Chris! It was so much fun to see them again! We ate lunch, had a few beers, and reminisced of the good ol days at the Rainforest Retreat.
Hannah and I whooping them at pool... Sorta...
Our hostel was a very quaint hostel, with maybe 20 or less people in it. We had a 4 person room, which was a huge difference from our 8-10 person room! I slept like a baby!
Steven the hostel cat... All up in my space
On Wednesday, our friend Nico came to Wanaka from Queenstown, so we all decided to go kayaking for the afternoon!
Isn't the weather terrible???...
We kayaked for 45 minutes to a little place called Ruby Island. We did some cliff jumping, swimming, apple picking, and a little bit of hiking. It was extra fun because no one else was on the island so we had the run of the place!
The beach on Ruby Island had perfect rocks for skipping!
We spent a few days being lazy and sitting on the beach and reading... It had been a tough couple of days after all... :).
On Saturday, Hannah and I went for a long hike/walk on trails in and around Wanaka. We were hoping to do a bigger hike but the really good ones were an hours or more hike away. The hike we took ended up being very beautiful and fun though!
The view of Wanaka from the other side of the lake
Wanaka has lots of fun little parks everywhere, so we took some time to explore those too!
A slide AND a dinosaur!?! What could be better??
...and then I remembered I got sick on twirly things...
Mini zip line!
Almost as fun as real zip lining! I don't know if these things would fly in a US park...
High five! On the side!
Lots of flowers blooming!
Another photo op during our hike
On Saturday afternoon, we went to the festival, which was very similar to our state fairs. There were all sorts of animal competitions. We managed to catch the parade of the animals that had won in... something.
An Angus took first place
My favorite thing we saw was the sheep herding competition! Each pair (the dog and the human) had to herd three sheep through different obstacles. It was really cool to see, I have a new appreciation for sheep herders.
Just waiting to be herded
It just amazed me how the instincts of the dogs instantly kicked in!
And that completes our week in Wanaka! The only thing missing is that today is Pi day, so Hannah and I will be celebrating by eating some classic NZ pie, unfortunately it's not sweet pie, but 1 experience point for us if we try some mince meat pie!
Tomorrow (Sunday, 15th), we will be hitch hiking back to Christchurch. From there, we will be picked up by the lady who's farm we will be staying on for a week! I believe it's a deer farm, but they have lots of other animals too, updates to come!
Wanka, just look as one of the most cute and friendly places you had been so far.
ReplyDeleteAngus looks like an amazing barnecue, just as all those sheep.
And I am jealous of all these beautiful view!!!