Weekend in Wanaka, New Zealand

Reeling from our time at beautiful Milford Sound, we packed up the Corolla and drove northward, heading in the direction of the glaciers along the south island’s west coast. We’ve done quite a bit of driving here in New Zealand, but they let you drive pretty fast and the scenery is very entertaining so we’ve enjoyed the journey as well as the destinations. We’ve posted a photo from along the roadside (see right) to give you an idea of why we‘re OK with receiving radio reception only 5% of the time.

To break up the drive, we stopped at a small resort town called Wanaka, north of Queenstown. Wanaka is a lakeside ski town in the winter and aboating and beach hang out in the summer. Since it is spring, we found it somewhat sleepy and totally charming. After settling in, we walked to the nearby Mount Iron and hiked to the summit for an awesome view of the area. Then, we wandered around town and enjoyed some happy hour beverages outside in the blazing sun.

We liked Wanaka a lot so we decided to stick around for another day, figuring the glaciers would probably still be there. We were glad we extended our stay in Wanaka because we enjoyed a local farmer’s market in the morning, saw a recreational cricket match in the town’s main park and then bellied up to the bar to watch the All Whites, New Zealand’s national football team, defeat the favored Bahrain squad in a World Cup Qualifying match. This is a very big deal here -- the kiwis are going to the World Cup in South Africa next year. This also marks the first time we’ve ever watch a full soccer game…!