Wanaka
I arrived in Wanaka early in the morning, after quite an amusing ride on a Newman's coach. the driver told us about Shrek, the amazing sheep, and did not mind sharing with us his political views. the hostel had an amazing view out of the late. i did not want to waste time. i put on my [still stinky from the routeburn] tramping clothes and set out to try and hitch hike to Diamond lake and rocky mountains track. after one and a half hours i was only 6kms closer to the track, which was 20km out of town. i hitch hiked back into town [now, THAT took about 5 minutes] and started my rest day. first, i walked to puzzling world, which was 2km out of town. the place has some famous optical illusions rooms, some of which i even saw in the past on TV. i was expecting more optical illusions, but for $7 i got my money worth.
my rest day continued by walking another 2km or so to a rock climbing center,
just out of town.
on the other side of town.
i got there and watched the local kids climb on the 15 meter wall + 3-4 meter overhang like.. monkeys? cats? pretty easily. i went into the beginners corner and proceeded to exhaust my hand muscles for a hour. after a hour i was feeling comfortable enough with the height, but my hands gave up on trying to hold me up. went back to the hostel and met two israelis who described to me at lengths how they murdered their travel partner.
the next day i caught a ride with them to the heart of Mt Aspiring National Park - Matutuki [or something similar] valley. two hours each way - and on the end you get to see Rob Roy glacier [after climbing on big rocks for ten minutes]. it's "pretty" big, there are some huge waterfalls coming out of it and it was just under the sun so the photos turned out bad. i think this was the best hike in terms of scenery / money ratio and scenery / time ratio i did in new zealand. drove out with a poor german guy. i "gave him some fuel money" - bought him a beer. it was quite a ride - over 30kms of unsealed road and many creeks to ford with a 20 year old car.
that evening i got an email from a couple i met on the Kepler reminding me to eat the Famous cookies of the Paradiso cinema in Wanaka. off i set on my task, to eat a cookie. the cookie was bigger than my hand. it was crunchy on the outside. it was warm and soft on the inside. it was a Famous cookie for a reason.
some crazy people suggested that i should do the Roy's peak track - a 2 hour climb to the top of the mountain [after the routeburn, the "rest day" and then the rob roy track]. i chose to catch the bus to franz josef glacier.
my rest day continued by walking another 2km or so to a rock climbing center,
just out of town.
on the other side of town.
i got there and watched the local kids climb on the 15 meter wall + 3-4 meter overhang like.. monkeys? cats? pretty easily. i went into the beginners corner and proceeded to exhaust my hand muscles for a hour. after a hour i was feeling comfortable enough with the height, but my hands gave up on trying to hold me up. went back to the hostel and met two israelis who described to me at lengths how they murdered their travel partner.
the next day i caught a ride with them to the heart of Mt Aspiring National Park - Matutuki [or something similar] valley. two hours each way - and on the end you get to see Rob Roy glacier [after climbing on big rocks for ten minutes]. it's "pretty" big, there are some huge waterfalls coming out of it and it was just under the sun so the photos turned out bad. i think this was the best hike in terms of scenery / money ratio and scenery / time ratio i did in new zealand. drove out with a poor german guy. i "gave him some fuel money" - bought him a beer. it was quite a ride - over 30kms of unsealed road and many creeks to ford with a 20 year old car.
that evening i got an email from a couple i met on the Kepler reminding me to eat the Famous cookies of the Paradiso cinema in Wanaka. off i set on my task, to eat a cookie. the cookie was bigger than my hand. it was crunchy on the outside. it was warm and soft on the inside. it was a Famous cookie for a reason.
some crazy people suggested that i should do the Roy's peak track - a 2 hour climb to the top of the mountain [after the routeburn, the "rest day" and then the rob roy track]. i chose to catch the bus to franz josef glacier.
posted by yeara at
2:03 am
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