Walking in Wanaka

The last few days have probably been the most spectacular combination of weather and views we've had so far.

As we left Queenstown for Wanaka the sun came out and we stopped in Arrowtown, an old gold-mining town, for a quick look around. The colours on the trees were amazing and it set the mood for the next couple of days in Wanaka.

The drive was as beautiful as usual and we arrived in Wanaka at lunch time. We quickly picked out a 'short' walk from Diamond Lake up Rocky Mountain - promising views of Lake Wanaka. It was pretty steep and blowing a gale when we reached the top so we quickly admired the view before a speedy descent only to be be met by a family of sheep on the steps.

Pleased with this climb/walk we set our sights higher for the next day and found a '5-6 hour moderate-hard' walk to the summit of Roy's Peak (promising even more spectacular 360 degree views). Content with Mr Deeds on the hostel's movie night we set about cooking our apetising sausages for dinner. We seem to have been in good luck this week - every time we've started making a meal that seems lacking a few ingredients, up pops a freebie from someone who's cooked too much. That evening was no exception and two young Irish lads gave up waiting for their pan of potatoes to boil (no surprise it was a BIG pan of potatoes) and handed them over to us. Delicious fried potatoes with our sausages, not to mention enough for mash the next night. Yum!

It was a good job we'd had a hearty feed as we started our 'walk' up Mt Roy yesterday - unbelievalbe that we ran a marathon last year as i swiftly became out of breath and lagged further behind. We pushed on though and reached the top in 2hrs 25 (views were as good as advertised with Lake Wanaka and Mt Aspiring). I didn't feel too bad about my fitness levels once we'd returned to the hostel and realised we'd climbed 1578m (over 200m higher than Ben Nevis) in 4hrs 15mins!

Today (for some reason) we had a quick jog around the lake before starting our journey via the Haast Pass to Glacier country and the Frans Joseph hostel. Despite the weather turning a tad wet again we saw some stunning blue ppols and waterfalls along the way.

I'm VERY excited about our upcoming Glacier hike :)

So tired now but a lay-in beckons tomorrow (it is Sunday after all)

Liz