Today we got up before the crack of dawn to drive to Wanaka. It was too early for anything to be open and they don’t have pay at the pump that works with any of our cards, so we couldn’t fill up at Franz Josef or Fox Glacier, so I had to strategically drive to make sure we got all the way to Haast, 143km away. To say we pulled into that gas station on fumes would be overestimating our gas level. I think we were a couple more turns of the engine short of running out of gas. Since I had driven slower on the way to Haast, I drove the freaking wheels off of the car the rest of the way to Wanaka, except for a couple brief picture spots. I’m pretty good at the whole left side of the road, right side of the car thing by now. I don’t really have to think about it at all. Joe would love some of these roads- they’d make incredible rally stages. In fact, even when the scenery is just farmland or forest, the roads themselves are quite an experience for me.
One stop we made to take pictures was just after Haast, as the road turned to go up into the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park. The Gates of Haast are these huge rapids of bright blue water coming down from the mountains. Up above, the steep mountain had a waterfall about 1000 feet up that was probably 200 feet tall. It was probably the coolest place I’ve seen in New Zealand so far, which means that its among the greatest places I’ve ever been. The forests we’ve been driving through for the past couple days are unlike anywhere I’ve ever been- very dense with all kinds of trees, bushes, and tons of ferns growing everywhere.
After roaring into Wanaka to drop Leslie off with seconds to spare, Nicole and I grabbed a quick snack of fantastic pasta salads, and walked around the resort town. It has the feeling of a town like Breckenridge or Banff, but the scenery is much different- a huge lake surrounded by mountains on all sides. The mountains here are a little more like the Canadian Rockies- barren, stark, and not quite as green as they were in Franz Josef and Hokitika. Our hotel tonight is a 4-star Grand Mercure- once again the loophole in the online promotion has worked tremendously in our favor. There’s 3 large hot soaking pools and great views out our balcony.
In the afternoon we went to Puzzling World and navigated the great maze- 1.5km and 2 levels of mazes with the goal of getting to each corner before finding your way back to the start. I think we went to each about 3 times by the time we were finally done- we fell right into the average time of 45 minutes. We then sat down and did some puzzles they had in the café- bad idea, it only furthered the frustration of the maze and didn’t come with the satisfaction of completion like the maze did. Lousy puzzles.
We went back to the hotel and Nicole was really tired so she took a nap and I drove over to the Wanaka Beerworks for a brewry tour and tasting, but sadly it was closed. Tonight we're going to eat some gourmet pizza (yum) and swim in the hot pools before heading to Queenstown for Bungy Jumping, maybe some wineries, and other activities tomorrow.
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