Day 22- November 24th

Early departure- left at 7.30 this morning. It was raining. As much as I thought Franz Josef was a sweet little village, I wasn't sad to be leaving. There wasn't really much going on except the kiwi wildlife centre, which I had my qualms with. I can't knock them too much as they are doing a brilliant job protecting the endangered kiwi, but their entrance fees were way too high which made it quite unattractive to backpackers like us, and also I felt there was something not quite right about how they manipulate the body-clock of the kiwis using artificial light, in order to trick the nocturnal creatures into thinking it is nighttime so that tourists can look at them.
The drive was long, but we made a few stops on the way. The main one was Westland Tai Poutini National Park to see Lake Matheson, the mirrored lake. The water is so still that the surrounding pine trees were captured in a perfect reflection on its surface. Well, they would have been, but it was raining lightly which slightly distorted the image, but you can't really tell in the photos!

Our final stop was the beautiful town of Wanaka. We were only staying here for one night unfortunately, but I wish we could have stayed longer! It had the feel of a small, Swiss alpine village, and was set on the southern edge of its namesake, lake Wanaka. I believe that it is actually a ski village in the winter, gateway to Treble Cone and Cardrona ski resorts.
The area used to be a huge glacier about 10,000 years, and our bus driver Rob told us a story about how the lake was formed by a giant, who was set on fire and rolled down the hill by a price rescuing a princess from the giant's clutches, but I'm pretty sure he made it up as I couldn't find anything on the internet.

Jet skiing on beautiful lake Wanaka

We arrived at Base hostel, which was one of the nicer accommodations selected by kiwi experience. It had social activities going on each evening, and that particular night was boozy bingo, which was quite entertaining. It was like regular bingo but there were key numbers which, when called, meant you had to do or shout something out, and the first one would win free drinks or something. I don't really know. I didn't win anything.

Base Wanaka

After arriving, I went for a little wander around the town. It was stunning, definitely the most beautiful place we've stayed at so far. There was a little artisan market going along along the lakeside which definitely added to the atmosphere, selling breads, soap, cider, flowers etc. I walked round the bay to the famous Wanaka tree, the most photographed tree in the whole of New Zealand. It stands alone in the water, 10 metres or so from the shore. It's a very photographic tree I must say.

Photo creds: Lily Bayliss

I also visited a nearby park. There was an archway of roses and I didn't really understand what it was though; it was completely empty. There were houses around which I though were museums or protected buildings. Although, looking back I think it might have been someone's house. Oops.

Trespasser or park-goer?

Another cool thing that Wanaka has is terracotta tiles lining the Main Street which make up a time line of the years, and have memorable events which happened in each year written in sharpie on them. That explained why I had seen people earlier walking down the street with their eyes on the ground and their necks twisted sideways at an awkward looking angle.

Interesting...