New Zealand Trip Report, Day 9: Wanaka, Day 10: Te Anau

DAY 9, Feb 26 , 2017, Sunday:

YHA PURPLE COW, WANAKA:

Wanaka YHA Purple Cow, was our home for  two nights, Feb 25 and 26... such a relief after a few one nighters... here on there were no more one nighters! Had been arriving at some destinations in the evening or even at 9pm and then checking out early morning... cooking in the communal kitchens and using the fridges there for storage. The amenities had been great but with all the hikes and this routine, it had been hectic.

The schedule continued to be hectic packed with hikes rest of the way also but staying 2 nights at the same place cut down a bit of the stress! We could not allocate more days to the previous destinations due to paucity of time... all are worth so much more time!!

However, what if we had allocated more time at all destinations and it had rained? It's all such a gamble really and we are so thankful to God for such great weather... especially as it had been raining heavily all through summer before our arrival! In January, the helicopters had done trips only on 2 1/2 days for the whole month... all rest washed out due to inclement weather!

Here's our lovely room with stunning lake view. YHA is on the Wanaka lake... only one plug point at the TV worked... we made do as we had a power cube for charging multiple...

Snow covered peaks of the Southern Alps in the background of Wanaka lake...

We picked up provisions from the nearby New World... after Christchurch this was he next grocery shopping. We did not shop at all in the smaller towns. The mild temperatures kept everything fresh during our drives and the hostel fridges were great.

BLUE POOLS:

Early morning we set off for the Blue Pools. It had been on the way when we arrived at Wanaka. In fact I had started the hike but son firmly said we were out of time and had to reach our destination. He was right! So we backtracked for the Blue Pools. There were so many cars at the parking lot I was annoyed for missing the hike the previous night. Surprisingly there were only a few in the Pools and it was an AWESOME sight! 

Then we retraced our way back to Wanaka,.. awesome views of the lakes Hawea and Wanaka...and the mountain range Remarkables

We had a meal in our room and then drove in the other direction for our hikes

Puzzling World:

We took a few silly pics at this fun place but did not buy tickets to enter. We had earmarked it for a rainy day, but with the great weather, it was mandatory to do the hikes...

DIAMOND LAKE CONSERVATION AREA:

It was a glorious sunny day and we would have loved to go to the Mt Aspiring  National Park... but the last 10km is on gravel where one has to ford streams and our rental car was not allowed on such roads... any problem there will mean we are uninsured.

We drove along Mt Aspiring road till an inconspicuous sign on our right. 

It's a comparatively short walk to Diamond Lake from the car park. The sun was blazing and I was a bit tired from all the hikes on this trip. The view was pretty rewarding though..

This is the Yellowhammer bird...

WANAKA LAKE VIEWPOINT:.

The trek from thereon to the Wanaka Lake view point  is more challenging, with many steps and some steep ascends as with the treks we had been doing on previous days. We had some confusion on which tracks to choose as there were 2 options...east and west. we chose the one with the lake view throughout and came back by the same route. Reviews are a little confusing... one is supposed to be too steep!There are some stunning views of Wanaka Lake from the top! 

INJURED HIKER:

We were trying to record the birdsong of a melodious bird and were irritated by the constant helicopter sounds as a helicopter hovered right over ... it kept returning and we thought it was a pesky tourist ride...

At this point our memory card 32 GB had become full... we switched to our small camera. A couple who passed us offered to take a pic...

 They said they had seen an ambulance at the parking lot and the helicopter was circling trying to pickup an injured hiker. It made a couple of landings also after quite a while and then it went away. It was a sobering moment. 

 There is a third stage of the trek ... Rocky mountain track...which will take us right up to the mountain top. I decided not to attempt it... we had had a lovely hike so far, it was getting late and no point killing oneself for yet another view. We enjoyed the views at the Wanaka lake view point which was on private land, then made our way back.

Hope the injured hiker is OK!!

THAT WANAKA TREE:

There is a small willow tree at least 70 years old growing in the lake... it was once part of a fence to keep sheep safe. It has surprisingly survived and grown into a tree when rest of the fence had withered away. The tree has become a symbol of resilience and affords a pretty picture at sunset with the backdrop of the Southern Alps. 

It was a short 2 minute drive from our room and we went through yet another lovely garden to admire THAT WANAKA TREE!

DAY 10, Feb 27, 2017, Monday:

Te Anau was our next stop for 2 nights. We decided to see the Lavender Farms before setting off. 

Our drive [235 km] map was as follows:

https://goo.gl/maps/YMvEuXVRrPnfU1VC6

The weather was going great and we did want to do our Milford Sound cruise in such glorious weather. We wondered if we can make it to the last cruise for that day or do the cruise early in the morning tomorrow. Plan was to avoid the tour crowds that come in buses from Queenstown and crowd all cruises from 10.30 to 3.... they have a long 41/2 hour trip one way, so if we manage to avoid them, we were assured a non crowded experience!

I had also picked Mitre Peak cruises... a smaller boat, for an exclusive experience.

Anyway, we did not make an early start but went to the lavender farm

THE LAVENDER FARM:

It's a private farm open for visitors... quite beautiful...just $2 entry to the rose gardens. The alpacas were cute too...

Had their organic ice creams with a combo of lavender and boisson berries for son, chocolate for me. His was good, mine just OK. Incidentally, these cups were $41/2 each, later I bought a 2 liter tub of TIPTOP icecream for just $6 at the supermarket. Did that twice and with our added walnuts, raisins, they made a great dessert.

Te Anau:

We started off for Te Anau... should have taken the Crown Range road but took SH6 instead. Missed out on some scenery... regretfully.

Reached Te Anau early in the afternoon but it was a bit late to start the drive for Milford Sound as we may not be able to make the 4.30pm last cruise.

BIRD SANCTUARY:

We went to the Bird sanctuary (Free entry) and saw the endangered Takahe... 4.30 pm was its feeding time and a lady volunteer took a group inside the enclosure... we joined the group and listened to her interesting talk on conservation efforts with TAKAHE.

We then moved on to the parakeets, mccaws, owl etc before moving off.

Feet dip in the cold waters of the lake was welcome...

Here's a takahe at the city center...

some wild lavender bushes...

and a model of the Te Anau lake...

We wanted to take the early morning 9.30 cruise on the famed Milford Sound...the drive is more than 2 hours. We retired for the day...

Our next 2 days ... Milford Sound cruise and drive to Queenstown, day trip to Glenorchy are covered in the next post:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/03/new-zealand-trip-report-day-11-milford.html