Mount Iron and Lavender Tea

Two kilometers from town there is an impressive, glacier carved, rocky knoll, Mount Iron, that rises nearly 250 m above the surrounding countryside. As the forecast is for heavy rain tomorrow, we decided to get a good walk in today and Mount Iron sounded perfect. We read that from the summit there are excellent 360-degree views of the The Pisa range, the Upper Clutha Basin, Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana.

The track began by going over a stile by the car park and turning left, so we were doing the loop clock-wise. We walked uphill through low shrubland on Mount Iron's western side to the summit.
Even though the trail was a good one, at times it was pretty steep.

Runners passed us on their way down, and people of all ages and their dogs were out for some exercise. One lady told us that lots of people who lived in Wanaka use this trail on a daily basis.

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top and after taking in the views, and the reading the information panels, we descended by taking the trail down on the eastern side.

Well, that was a good workout for the day, and as we were very close to a lavender farm, we rewarded ourselves with a lavender herbal tea and cake in their cafe. They also had lavender ice cream but we didn’t ‘work’ hard enough to treat ourselves to that, at 11:30 a.m.!

The Wanaka Lavender Farm has 15 acres of lavender fields, an animal farm & display gardens. It is close to the end of the season for lavender but it was still a beautiful and calm place to visit. They also keep bees and produce lavender products and Lakes Honey on their site.

Today, Saturday, Wanaka is hopping! The town is full of campers and motorhomes and people! Helicopters are taking people on trips over the mountains and lakes. Boats are touring the lake. Paddle boarders, kayaks, standup paddle boards, hikers, you name and activity and it is being done! We are glad that we are staying in a lovely place on the outskirts of the main town. It is quiet here, yet still only a 20 minute walk into town.

On our way back to our accommodation, we stopped in to check out the quirky local movie theatre - the Paradiso Cinema. It was an old church that has been turned into 3 cinema rooms. It appears to run a variety of movies all day - non stop. We booked tickets to see Jojo Rabbit at 5:30 p.m.Baca lagi