Wanaka

After the crazy storm of the evening, Milford Sound returned to beautiful clear, sunny skies. We drove back the way we came in through Te Anua, past Queenstown and towards Christchurch to Lake Wanaka, a small lakeside town. This was just a stopover to get us a little closer to Christchurch, which is another 5 hours northeast.

Past Queenstown, we took the mountain route towards Lake Wanaka. On the way, we stopped at this lookout over looking a pretty valley. Beyond the mountains in the foreground is Queenstown.

At the summit of the mountain pass is this lookout over some interesting terrain. The climate is much drier here and there is a lot less vegetation.

Descending from the summit, you weave through the mountains. Fun no matter what make, model and year of your car.

We arrived at our motel in Wanaka, which was a nice place in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We walked out to the lake that is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The following is a view back towards Wanaka.

Now I know where “having all your ducks in a row” comes from. There were many rows of ducks that were not afraid of humans, we could walk amongst them without them being disturbed.

There was an interesting lone tree growing out in the lake. The weather was really nice, to the point that there were people swimming and wind sailing in the brisk waters of Lake Wanaka.

The town of Wanaka is pretty small and there are just a few shops and restaurants. We ended up eating at a place with a platter that consisted of fried foods that included the obligatory fish and chips, fried (imitation) crab sticks, and hot dogs, which happily for us turned out to be corn dogs.