Wanaka - Still A Favourite

My next stop in New Zealand brought me to my favorite town in the country - Wanaka. It was here 13 years ago that I went Skydiving and remembered the great time I had had here. It’s situated right at Lake Wanaka with great views over the Southern Alps.

This time, however, I was not doing any high-adrenaline activity, but instead focused on hiking - something I had not done the last time. After a full day of recharging, exploring the little town with its famous tree that grows in the water and eating a really good pie, I went to bed early as I was doing a sunrise hike to the top of Roy's Peak.

It's a 16km, 6h return track with a total elevation gain of about 1310m. The other thing to know about Roy's Peak is that over the recent years it has shot to fame on Instagram for its georgeous viewpoint that overlooks snow-capped mountains and Lake Wanaka.

So I got up at around 4.30am, picked up two fellow travellers and together we started the hike promptly at 5am. Since I had not really packed for cold weather, I was wearing 3-4 layers to stay nice and toasty.

Half way up the mountain, something really spectacular took place. Unknown to me at the time, a geosolar 'storm' was hitting earth the day of the hike and in front of me the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) appeared. It was a magical moment as the sky turned pink behind the ridge of the mountain. I was truly in awe and happy to have seen them.

At around 7am, i.e. 2h in, we reached the famous viewpoint, but decided not to linger there to much and instead hike all the way up to the summit, which took us another 30 minutes. As sunrise was at 7.50am, we had plenty of time to spare. So, we sat down, ate our packed breakfast and watched how the sky changed colours every other minute. The sunrise was truly beautiful and the lake below and high mountains to the left provided a stunning scenery.

Since we were sitting down to enjoy all of that, it wasn't long before we got cold and decided after a little photoshoot to make our way down. During the descent, we, of course, stopped at the 'Instagram' viewpoint and took a few photos.

Once down, I took it easy the rest of the day and in the evening, a few people I met at the hostel and I drove to a nearby spot to watch the Southern Lights once more, before having a quiz night at the hostel.

The next day, I wanted to take it easy and recharge from the hike, but there was one more mountain in Wanaka I was told is worth hiking up and the weather forecast for the following days was looking so lala. So I convinced myself - even though my legs were sore - and drove to the base of Isthmus Peak.

The track is, again, 16km long and has an elevation gain of 1155m. My plan was to get up there for sunset, so I started at 2.15pm and was up there at 5pm. There was no other soul on the summit, so I had the sunset all to myself. I lingered there for around 30 minutes and enjoyed a beautiful evening at the top by myself. I probably prefered that hike to Roy's Peak, as it is more interesting (changes in scenery vs Roy's peak is just zig-zaging up), the summit is literally surrounded by mountains and it has not just one, but two lakes below (Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea).

At this point in my trip, I was really in a hiking mode. One of my plans for New Zealand's south island was to go amongst the mountains and I was truly happy with how things unfolded. Plus I was extremely lucky with the weather up to this point as whenever I needed it had blue skies. Hiking among the Southern Alps also gave me time to reflect about many things and really appreciate that l was doing this epic around-the world trip.

The next day my legs were really dead, though, so I definitely did not do much. I walked around town a little bit and went to the Paradiso Cinema - a place | went to 13 years ago. It's a great venue where they serve pizza and freshly-baked cookies in the intermission. That made up for the terrible movie (Civil War).

On my last day in/around Wanaka, I drove to the former gold-mining town of Arrowtown, which is a chilled vibe and looked absolutely beautiful in the autumn with colourful leafs all around. Afterwards. I did some self-care and booked myself an outdoor Spa at Onsen Hot Pools with amazing views over the Remarkables mountains. It was a prefect end to my time in Wanaka. It was pretty much how I hoped it would be - a mix of walking down memory lane and getting up the mountains for the soul.

Wanaka, you remain one of my favorite places in New Zealand!Baca lagi