Today it was time to leave Queenstown to head into Wanaka, which lies around 120km north of Queenstown on Lake Wanaka. A place considered even more beautiful than Queenstown. Not just the town it self, but rather the whole area, which I can totally comply.
Wanaka just got a population of around 3.000 people, and nothing more than a mere spec on the map. But still one of the most known places around New Zealand.
I came here for two reasons. First of all, because I wanted to see this place and the lake in particular. Secondly it is the gate to some of the most beautiful hiking areas in the country like Mount Aspiring National Park which bears one of the highest mountains in the country called Mount Aspiring or Tititea (Glistening Peak) in Maori that is going up to 3.033 meters. Not bad for a small landmass like the south island of New Zealand.
My other hiking destination is the Young Valley/Wilkins Valley crossing, which lies further north of Wanaka close to a little place called Makarora.
But for today I have no hiking planned. Instead I went to the hair cutter. One thing I realized on my way to Ben Lomond, that it is freaking annoying to have longer hair when going on a hike, so they had to go.
I also did some other organizing stuff like going to the library to use their Internet and checking into a hostel.
Funnily enough Lara was in Wanaka too. So we were catching up later on that day as well. We went out for a couple of beers, having a great time. In Wanaka you can find a little brewery called “Brewski – Wanaka Beerworks”. Not a bad sip, I gotta say.
The best thing was, that Lara also wanted to go on a hike, so we agreed to make a trip into Mt. Aspring National Park for a few days, starting tomorrow morning. Yeah, that sounds good to me.
But for now, lets check out a few more impressions of Wanaka.
