Wanaka

I made it to my next destination and even before I arrived, I decided to stay a bit longer, if possible, pending accommodation. And I did. Four nights actually.  I booked 2 nights originally, but then had to be prepared to leave if they didn't have accommodation for the 3rd night. And the 4th night just kind of happened.

I kicked off the Wanaka part of New Zealand with a road trip with 2 new friends, Verena, from Germany, and Johnny, from England. After a little bit of coordinating in Queenstown, we hit the road in Verena's new car, Jabba. And by new, I mean new to her. The year of the car is 1996 I believe.

We drove through some beautiful scenery and headed to Mount Iron for a hike. Before setting out, we hit up the toilets at Puzzle World, where we got distracted a bit. We wanted to solve some of the puzzles laying around, but since Verena and Johnny were headed back to Queenstown, we had to get on with the hike. It wasn't too difficult of a hike and didn't take too long. It offered some amazing views of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding area. Of course, after any sort of hike, a beer is usually a must. So before I got dropped off, and they got on the road, we hit up a cafe on the lake for a Monteith's ale.

Hiking with new friends.

I didn't do too much more around town the rest of the day. I wandered around a bit, went to the grocery store, and had dinner. Later that evening, I noticed the sunset was looking pretty good, so made my way back down to the lake. It was pretty amazing. It was a little different from the night before in Queenstown due to the sun's position, but still spectacular. I had a lot of great sunsets in Thailand, but only had one truly spectacular one, and now New Zealand has surpassed it. I'll just need to go back to Thailand.

Sunset on Lake Wanaka.

I tried to get some sleep that first night, which was slightly difficult (and continued to be so) in bunk beds that creak at every movement. I eventually got up to go out for a run to explore. I ran along the lake, and it was beautiful. It would have been cool to keep running, but the lake is pretty big and covers way more miles than what I was doing. As I ran along, I was also on the lookout for Rippon Winery. I didn't see anything on the run out, but when I turned around and came back, I found it. When I come back later to do a tasting, I would know exactly where I'm going. And later that afternoon, that is exactly what I did. I headed along the path of the lake again, and captured some more photos of the Wanaka Willow, a tree that grew out of a fence and is now in the water. I took a lot of photos of this tree while I was in Wanaka, but here's one of my favorites.

The Wanaka Willow.

I continued on my way, found the sign pointing me to the winery and made my way up a hill. I had to work for that wine. But the higher I went, the better the view.

View from Rippon Vineyard.

I finally made it to the winery and tried a few different wines, as I heard the history of the vineyard. Rippon was the first winery in the region and went through a trial and error process until they landed on the grapes that grew best. They included some reds and whites, like pinot noir and gewürztraminer. The girl telling me all about it was actually from Cleveland, which was pretty cool. I also met a mom and daughter from New Zealand after the tasting. I took my bottle outside to have a glass (or 2), and joined them to soak up the view.  We ended up chatting about the US, politics, and building codes in NZ. Sounds boring, but it wasn't. 

Wine tastings.

I really didn't do too much more in Wanaka during my stay. It rained a lot one day and after my run, I hibernated inside for a while. It was good since I needed to get caught up on my finances. I was pleased with the outcome. I have a range in my head of what I'd like to be spending, and I'm on the higher end of it, but was relieved I wasn't over it. For now. I then of course booked a paragliding ride. But it actually got cancelled, so I got a refund. I do need to plan some sort of extreme adventure while I'm in New Zealand and my time is running out. Whenever I pictured visiting New Zealand, I pictured bungy jumping. And why not since it started here. I didn't get a chance to jump off the highest spot in New Zealand, which is located outside of Queenstown. I actually have a jump scheduled, so we will see how it goes!

I did do a little shopping though. I finally bought new pair of sunglasses. Mine broke ages ago and I have been squinting for far too long. I also bought a cute, wool, bomber, zip-up jacket. I rationalized the purchase since it's a local product, I didn't buy a marathon jacket like I usually do, and it will keep me warm on my travels. I think my time with the heat and humidity is fading. I also visited a sports store and it was the first place that I've seen Nuun, Clif bars, and Gu gels in one place. I of course I had to buy a few things. Even though my marathon training is over. But you never know.

Running nutrition.

After our hike a few days prior, Verena and I really talked about doing a road trip together. We mentioned it before, but it would require Verena changing her plan a bit since I had a hard deadline. But we had a plan before she went back to Queenstown and she was picking me up in a few days. I of course was nervous she may bail and I would be on my own, which wouldn't be a huge deal. But I was looking forward to having some company and doing a road trip. She arrived on my 4th day in Wanaka, just as planned. We did some research and actually decided to stay in Wanaka that night before heading out to explore Mount Cook and the West Coast. We had an exciting night of making dinner and doing laundry. But we were saving money and had to get some clean clothes. We also had an early start the next morning.

A real dinner.

I liked Wanaka and definitely would have stayed longer to maybe reschedule the paragliding, visit another winery and/or the brewery, do some more hiking or swimming, and who knows what else. But there's never enough time to do everything. I needed a few days to chill out before going on a road trip and glad I had them. Time to explore some more of the South Island.