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| Wanaka |
Day 7 (Queenstown-->Wanaka):
I woke up to the snorer snoring once again, but I decided that I’d yelled enough at him/her so I just took one for the team and got up. In order for my recently washed hair to last for the next 4 days without getting unbearably greasy and gross, I decided to put my feather boa on and be a diva camper. I straightened it and that did the trick; I was good to go for the next 4 days. Who knew straightened hair lasted longer?
We took the windy roads up over the mountains to Wanaka, got there before 10am, and headed out on a track around the lake! Wanaka seemed to be a cute little town full of “holiday houses” and this lake was absolutely picture perfect with the hills and snow-capped mountains surrounding it. We had gotten some advice to do the Millenium Track, so that’s where we headed! This track took us up and down hills right along the edge of the lake. A few hours later we found a hidden shore with rocks, big and little, all around. After eating lunch and exploring a little bit, we headed back and checked out town centre. I had a bee in my bonnet for some earplugs, so 2 days too late, I finally got some. FINALLY.
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| Wanaka |
We drove about 5 minutes out of town to Mt. Iron where we hiked up the super steep 1.5 hour return, which had a BEAUTIFUL view of pretty much ALL of Wanaka from the top! Ahhh it was incredible! Houses, town, mountains, snow, lake, hills, farmland, everything! We found a DOC site about an hour out of Wanaka on our way to our next stop, so we took advantage and settled there for the night. It had started to rain when we got there so after a long day of walking, we all just sat there contently, journaled, named all the states and capitals (except for Nebraska, which it took us about 4 days to think of!), talked about southern stereotypes (SO interesting to hear from non-southerners’ perspective, don’t worry I’ll elaborate later), and listened to country music (aka my ipod). We were the only ones in this campsite, but it still felt totally safe. Sidenote: we never locked the doors when we went to bed. That was probably pretty stupid, but it worked out fine! I finally faced the drizzley rain, babywiped, got ready for bed, put my earplugs in, and happily dozed off, not to be woken by anything but the New Zealand sun in the morning :)
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| The campsite |
Day 8 (Wanaka-->Franz Josef):
The only thing on today’s agenda was driving, so we stopped and explored whatever we found along the way to Franz Josef. Also, I would just like to add that this morning, I ate breakfast (a broken up granola bar mixed in my tub of yogurt) at a picnic table overlooking the land of no where, NZ. Literally, it was miles and miles of mountains, creeks/river, land, and ONE road running through it all. What an amazing way to start another great day! We made our way to Franz Josef and hit up 5 hikes on the way, 3 that ended at waterfalls. One of them was called Roaring Billy (interesting name right?) and it was a 25 minute return, however we ended up staying at the end for forever. It landed us at a winding river with acres of rocky shore and a waterfall coming down from a mountain. I think I just sat on one of the boulders and looked around for at least 20 minutes just thinking about what an amazing creator we have! It was humbling to be in such a huge landscape and feel so small. We ended up driving right along to west coast, super high up above sea level. The horizon line was the farthest away that I’d ever seen it and it looked as if the sky was dropping, about to touch the ocean. I’m trying my best to explain these views, but I just can’t! This is pretty funny though: we stopped to take some pictures along the way and I guess I was just so in awe of how much ocean there was and how beautiful it all looked that Megan, in all seriousness, asked, “So is this the first time you’ve ever seen the ocean?” I must’ve seemed really excited about it or something haha!
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| Roaring Billy |
We invested in some sandfly repellent when we got to Franz Josef and booked our glacier hike for the next day. Our glacier hike came with tickets to the hot pools in FJ, but we weren’t too excited about going to them since we hadn’t brought bathing suits and it was getting dark pretty soon. I tried to talk my way out of having it included in the cost, but failed. Since we already paid for it, we figured we’d go and check it out. Best decision of the day. There were showers in the changing rooms! I walked in with ALL of my shower stuff, including flip flops, towel, and pajamas to put on after. These showers were definitely not meant for full showers... I only know that because I had to press the button about 25 times because the water timed out every 30 seconds or so. I definitely got some funny looks when I walked by the reception desk of the high class hot pools in my bright red long johns. Oh well, congrats to us for beating the system. Gotta get those showers when you can!
We had to find our campgroud in the dark, which we had already learned is not really ever a good idea. Long story short, we never found it, but did find one on the SHORELINE OF THE TASMAN SEA. Yes please! It was a little farther out of FJ, but SO worth it! This is the point where I think I realized that I was getting used to camp food: I ate a pack of instant noodles (aka ramen) raw. Uncooked. They’re actually really good like that! I topped it off with some pb&j camping style, pictured below.
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| pb&j camping style |
I would start Day 9, but its pretty filled and I’ve got an essay to write (on American baseball!!), so I’ll have to save it for the next post! Sheesh this is going to take a month to write about!
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