Wanaka

We left Franz Joseph behind along with my iphone which I have now realised since there is a 1 week delay in writing the blogs. Useless! It was a mega early departure because we were heading to lake Matheson which i have been looking forward to ever since i seen Katie's photo of it; it's a mirrored lake and if you catch it on a good day you can see the snow capped peaks of mount cook in the background. Lucky for us the forecast was sweet! Lou still wasn't feeling well on the bus but i could tell she was getting better. We left the hostel at 7ish and arrived at lake Matheson for about 9ish. Let me just set the scene for you's........ it was a cold crisp morning and i had the woolly hat on that Lou had bought from the salvation army store for her outfit because i had taken i liking to it and you could still see the morning mist on the lake and surrounding farm fields so me, Hayley and the rest of the gang did the 30 minute walk to the lake for that perfect picture. However when we got there the ducks were already up and about leaving ripples in the water which spoiled the mirror image haha After i took them out with a few stones i found by my side the lake started to calm and the clouds slowly started to disperse as the sun was trying to get out. It was a perfect postcard picture so we stayed for about 20 minutes as i took about a million pictures.

We headed back to a little cafe were Louise was asleep on the couch and Hayley had getting what looked like the best sausage sandwich i had seen; the view from this cafe was snow capped mountains in the distance.

Our second bus stop was for lunch and we had stopped off at a great spot where you could see the valley and at the end of the valley was the massive mountain of Mount Cook which we couldn't seem to escape. After we had lunch and Hayley did a few laps of the car park trying to out run a bee and decided to throw her sandwich to the floor in an attempt to distract it haha we eventually boarded the bus and headed for Wanaka. However Not before another stop off at lake Hawea normally I'm just as sick of these stop offs as you but i must admit we thought this drive from Franz Joseph to Wanaka was by far the best in the whole of New Zealand; stunning. We drove side by side lake Wanaka that stretches for over 34kms and is on average 3km wide i didn't think i would see a lake as blue.....................NOT UNTIL we changed course and headed in land to lake Hawea, it was unbelievable and didn't cost any money!!! After this we headed for Wanaka where we stayed at the YHA, as we were pulling into the hostel past the lake our bus driver mentioned to us that there are dolphins that come for feeding every night around about 6ish and it was an excellent thing to do whilst in Wanaka.

We soon realised the YHA was a good choice since finding out we had a little kitchen in our room with private en-suite and lake Wanaka was just a stone's throw away and where we would eat lunch, had massive windows so you can over look the lake. Later on i knew Louise was feeling a little better and would of been excited at the prospect of seeing the dolphins but unfortunately i had to break the bad news and tell her that dolphins don't live in lakes and our bus driver was only joking haha You should of seen Lou's face and for those of you who didn't click on before iv mentioned it, which will probably be you.......MAM!! You should have paid more attention in school haha.

That night we cooked a excellent pasta bake and Pam and Ayley came over from Base hostel to sample the swanky lifestyle of the YHA. That night we the stars where unbelievable due to the lack of clouds and street lights. We have only noticed this twice once here and the other in Noosa. That night in the bedroom Hayley accidently let out a little trump, i say accidently i just don't know with Hayley anymore haha so me.............not one to be beating i gave her a run for her money and fired one back and by the end we were having a full on trump off and as Mr Coleman said........... "There was so much wind in the room you could fly a bloody kite" haha oh yeah by the way did i mention that there were 2 other people asleep in the beds next to us and this had went on for about 5 minutes haha good times!

Anyway the next morning we had decided to stay another night in Wanaka to explore a bit more and the one thing that we wanted to do was visited the little cinema which was meant to be excellent. Its only a small local cinema but all the seats are big sofa's and there's even a car in the room where people can pretend there in a drive through but the biggest selling point to us was the intermission where they bring out freshly baked cookies! We had booked to go see Black Swan at 8 0 clock that night cause it was the only film but we more interested in the cookies than the film anyway. That day Lou was back fighting fit so Lou and Hayley wondered down by the lake all day just reading a few magazines courtesy of Hayley and while I'm on the subject of us rewarding from Hayley's cast offs she treated us to a Cadburys cream egg in Rotorua which i forgot to mention. I don't think she's seen us so happy Haha anyway while they did that me and Megan did a walk to a lookout point on top of this hill which had excellent views of lake Wanaka.

That night we headed down to the local cinema, and it was exactly how it had been described. As soon as you walked in you get the smell of popcorn and the feeling you get when the intermission comes on and the double doors open; the smell of freshly made cookies fills the room haha you know what I'm talking about Hayley! I went for a ginger cookie with white chocolate buttons inside.........it totally made the film ten times better and for those of you who have seen black swan it was rather 'disturbing' but it does have its good bits haha brilliant night and off to Queenstown in the morning.

Love Adam, Louise and Hayley xxx

P.s We are writing this blog just after saying our goodbyes to Hayley as she sets off home . We have truly had an amazing time and thank you for everything!!! Hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have............... GREAT TRIP MADE EVEN BETTER!!!! xx