Hanukkah in Wanaka

We are currently experiencing a very rainy day in Wanaka, so in order to avoid being stuck rereading Harry Potter in the tent all day we decided to park ourselves at the library and take advantage of their magazines and free wifi (only 30 minutes daily so my pictures better upload fast!). Other than the bad weather today we have completely fallen in love with this town. Wanaka is a town of about 6,000 people centered around the huge Lake Wanaka with mountains surrounding in almost every direction. Although not many people live here, all the Kiwis and tourists seem to flock here in the holiday season making it very busy. We were only supposed to stay here one night, but we ditched our other plans and ended up staying here five nights. I think we both love it because it’s an outdoor oriented community with tons of things to do. Also the weather has finally turned to make it actually feel like summer here.

Blake enjoying Wanaka beer at the holiday park

Supposedly this is the most photographed tree in NZ

 

 We lucked out finding a really nice holiday park to camp at for three nights that was relatively cheap and right on the lake. Our first morning there we rented some bikes from the holiday park and rode about 20k down into town and back. It’s hard to beat a ride with the lake on one side and beautiful purple flowers blooming on the other side. We spent the afternoon looking around the shops and having some of the best gelato of my life. It’s really hard to stop myself from going back in there every time I walk by.

Blake biking through the purple flowers

GELATO!!! Coffee and salted caramel flavor

 

There’s a hike right in town that is the “locals hike” that we have now done twice called the Mt. Iron hike. It took us about half an hour to reach the top before we were rewarded with 360 degree views over the whole city. If I lived in Wanaka I would probably do this hike multiple times a week. Moderate effort, for maximum reward.

 

Top of Mt. Iron

 

Walking back down from Mt. Iron

My knee was feeling a bit better after getting it taped up, so we decided to go for a bit more challenging hike up Diamond Lake to Rocky Mountain. It was a pretty steep hike up, but we got an even better view of the city than at Mt. Iron. Now here comes the weird part. When we got to the summit there were two other girls talking and we could tell they were Americans. They looked like they were pretty into their conversation, so we sat down 20 ft or so away from them. We were taking in the view when we overheard one of the girls say ”Oregon.” At this point we started listening in on their conversation because we were curious. Then we heard the girl say, “Linfield” and “Kyle.” At this point I jump up and go over to her and say, “Not to be a creep, but I think I know the Kyle you are talking about.” There’s a guy named Kyle who graduated with us from Linfield that had gone over to NZ a few months ago to live in Wanaka, so I was pretty positive that’s who she was talking about. Turns out, the girl had dated Kyle when he was living in Wanaka for a few months. Honestly, what are the chances the only other two people on the mountain start talking about Linfield. We definitely had our minds blown by what a small world it is.

Diamond Lake hike- you can't see Diamond Lake from this picture though. That's Lake Wanaka in the background.

Blake posing for a picture before we had our minds blown.

 

Another highlight of the week was going to Cinema Parasidio last night to see the Hobbit. (Thanks for the birthday present Drew!) This theater is unique because instead of the traditional theater seats, there are couches and even two cars to sit in if you want the drive in movie feel. I’m not the biggest LOTR fan, but the atmosphere of the cinema plus the homemade cookies and ice cream made the movie very enjoyable. We also visited the very unique attraction of Puzzling World. I was hoping there would be jigsaw puzzles, but they were more like mind puzzles. They have tons of different puzzles in their lobby that you can sit down and work on them for free, so we sat there for an hour or so working on various puzzles until our brains hurt.

He must be really strong.

Blake wanted to use some of his Christmas money to take a tour of Wanaka Beerworks. I even liked one of the beers!

It's hard to see, but this is the movie theater.

 

We are spending one more night in Wanaka (for now) and are heading up to Mt. Cook tomorrow to hopefully catch it when the weather is better. Then we are headed to Queenstown where we will spend a few days for Christmas!