We had a leisurely start to our first full day in Wanaka, but when we finally left the condo we headed straight to Pembroke Patisserie for fresh baked pastries (including an unreasonably delicious Cardamom roll), coffee, and quiche. From there it was just a couple blocks to the Upper Clutha River Track, a trail which stretches for 11.5 miles along the banks of the Clutha River (the same river we stopped at in Clyde on our drive up to Queenstown a few days ago) which originates from Lake Wanaka. The trail was wide and easy hiking. The Cardona River - a much smaller waterway - happens to enter the Clutha River near where we started out hike - so we got turned around a few times hiking down routes which ended at the shoreline or confluence of the two rivers, but none the less we had a perfect short hike along the river. The trail is clearly enjoyed by the Wanaka community as we were passed by several folks out for a hike, a trail run, a mountain bike ride, and even a guy who looked to be in his mid-70s who was riding his bike while walking his dog on a leash along side.
After the hike we headed out to a dual destination - Wanaka Beerworks, which happened to be right next door to the National Transport and Toy Museum. We popped into Wanaka Beerworks for a taster of their beers, which were all quite good - the standout oddly was a strawberry lager, something that we didn't expect we'd like but turned out to be very good. We then walked next door and into a giant toy store.
River was in heaven, grabbing trucks to roll around the store. After about 30 min of chasing River around in the store we paid for entry into the National Transport and Toy Museum, which was entered by going out the back of the toy store. The Museum is all from one person's private collection of toys, aircraft, and vehicles (apparently the largest such collection in the world) and it occupies multiple warehouses, as well as a couple acres of land amid the warehouses. Upon stepping out the back of the toy store we spotted the pedal cars which we all hopped in to peddle around. I got back behind the wheel for a bit, taking the boys on a spin around the property using only peddle power - it was pretty fun (and slow). To no great surprise River did not want to leave the peddle cars even after we'd been at it for a half hour, and so after physically peeling him off one of the cars we did a very quick look at a bit of the collection. It was the sort of place a collector or a car enthusiast would have a great time, but other than a handful of things wasn't really our cup of tea. So we headed back into town.
We walked from our condo over to the park to let the boys run wild at the dinosaur slide playground for about an hour and a half, then walked another couple blocks to Pembroke Wine & Spirits. The place had come highly recommended, they do tastings for regional wineries, breweries, and distilleries all in one place and provide great charcuterie boards - which Sharyl was pretty excited about. The place was great, very nice to have a relaxing day with almost no driving for Sharyl. Then we headed to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant Amigo's.
This morning we got going a lot earlier, fueled by local peaches, apples, blueberries (all of which Sharyl picked up at a Farmstand a couple days ago), and another one of those Cardamom Rolls - we were driving an hour out of Wanaka to the Blue Pools. The drive took us through Albert Town over the Clutha River and to the banks of Lake Hawea. We drove for the next 40 minutes on the strip of moutianous land that splits Lake Wanaka from Lake Hawea - the road first following above Hawea for about 25 minutes, then crossing over "the Neck" to be above Lake Wanaka for the next 15. As we drove on we got closer into the Southern Alps and the scenery grew more dramatic. Eventually we pulled into the parking area at The Blue Pools Track - part of Mt. Aspiring National Park - and started down the trail.
This particular hike is one of the "must do" things around Wanaka, and even though the town is very slow paced, the hike was pretty busy. But it's all relative - Iao Valley and Oheo Gulch are far busier than Blue Pools was today, though I can imagine in the peak summer season it might look more like those popular Maui sites. The trail was just the right speed for us today - a couple miles of hiking, two swinging bridges, a couple boardwalks, it was great and the boys loved it.
The first bridge crosses the Makarora River, leading on to a boardwalk which takes you to the second swinging bridge over the Blue Pools. The sign at each end of the Blue Pools swinging bridge presents a compelling case for why the bridge should not be loaded with over 20 people.
The Blue Pools flow from glacial melt, and the color that we see is dependent on the angle of the sunlight hitting the (actually) crystal clear water. Sharyl climbed up to an overhead vantage point and got a few pictures looking down on the bridge with Reef, River and I (wearing a red shirt) in them. After checking out the bridge we walked down to the water's edge, where the tranquil Blue Pools meet the fast flowing Makarora River.
After spending a bit of time at the Blue Pools we hiked back to the RV and headed toward our second destination of the day - Basecamp Adventures!
As soon as Reef found out Wanaka had a Rock Climbing Gym, he was super excited to give it a shot and today was the day. Before today Reef had only done Bouldering - which is rock climbing on low walls (less than maybe 10 feet) where harnesses and ropes are not needed. But at Basecamp Adventures they have a "clip & climb" area where kids get harnessed up, clipped in and then an auto-belay keeps them safe as they climb up to around 25 - 30 feet off the ground.
Reef was a bit nervous about the height at first, climbing up about 10 feet then lowing down and slowly climbing a couple feet higher each time, until he eventually got brave enough to climb all the way to the top. He then changed it up trying a couple other walls and a 30 foot rope ladder suspended away from the walls (which still requires a harness to climb).
Once Reef finished climbing it was off to a destination Sharyl had picked out. Aitken's Folly had come recommended to us by the same New Zealand winemaker who had recommended Huia - the Marlborough vineyard we loved up in Blenheim. This tiny vineyard sits on about 10 acres of land just outside Wanaka, and is run by a couple who retired from the UK in 2008 and started from scratch knowing nothing about winemaking. The woman's maiden name is Aitken and when she and her husband told their co-workers their harebrained plan to sell everything and move to New Zealand to become winemakers one friend had said "I hope this isn't Aitken's Folly", and thus their winery was given it's name. The wine tasting takes place in a small room that appears to be part of their house but has been set-up for this purpose. We were the only people there, which is good because I don't think they are really suited to handle multiple parties at once. The boys were fully entertained by the chalkboard wall in the room, it was the most peaceful wine tasting we've had - both boys were happy as can be drawing on the wall.
After the wine tasting we headed down to another playground- this one a bit more River’s speed. The playground was close to That Wanaka Tree - which is the most photographed part of the town, we hadn’t yet seen the tree, which is growing out of the lake, so this playground stop allowed us to also take a quick look at this unique tree.
From there it was back to Francesca's for our last dinner in Wanaka. Like the first, the meal was exceptional (especially Sharyl's Gnocchi) - but this time thankfully River was in a much better mood, so we were able to enjoy and take our time, even finishing off the night with a Tiramisu and a limoncello (for Sharyl) and Grappa (for me).
Tomorrow we are back on the road - heading into the heart of the Southern Alps . . . Mt. Cook!
Comments
Post a Comment