Wanaka.1

Abandoning Auckland, we took a flight to Christchurch and picked up our Kiwi Campers Campervan. Perhaps you should expect to get what you paid for, and we did think it rather good value.....the van certainly has seen better days- but we weren't quite expecting how many better days that might be.... Although everything seems to work, pretty much everything you can imagine is broken, if that makes sense? However, despite 350,000km, it seems to drive reasonably well...
We made a bee line south, and with cold, drizzly and gusty conditions, parked up by Lake Opuha and had a surprisingly comfortable but chilly night .
We woke to blue skies and got on the road early- with pit stops at Fairlie ( Fairlie good pies), Tekapo( lake views) and Twizel( coffee) we arrived in Wanaka to be blown away by the view, and gob-smacked at the bach Dean & Nicky have very kindly lent us for the Christmas period. It's likely we might never stay in the van....
Ewen and Antonia arrived by plane/ bus shortly after us and, like kids at Christmas(?), we were soon out exploring the lake side trails to GlenDhu Bay on foot or by bike.
Next day we wanted a Big Hike so opted for Roy's Peak. This has a bit of an insta reputation, we're told, for the classic view down a serrated arête overlooking lake wanaka. Maybe that explained the mobbed car park at 7.45 am. We soon realised it was dec21- the longest day - and as we walked upwards we passed maybe a couple of hundred folk (of a certain age) zombiefied by the early start for the mid summer dawn photo. Very impressed that the insta obsession can drag folk out of bed at 5am to climb a chilly 800m!!
We had an ace up our sleeve though, which was to continue off the back of Roys peak, over Alpha peak and along the skyline path. Excellent tramping with stupendous views but the 7hrs one way meant the crowds instantly disappeared after Roy's peak and we pretty much had the rest of the tramp to ourselves. Fantastic hike!Read more