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2 days at Lake Wānaka and then onto Franz Josef glacier.

 
It has been a few days since we blogged. We were supposed to do it yesterday, but we’re just so exhausted after our 2 days off at Lake Wanaka. 😉

 

  


On our first morning there we went for a wander around the lake to see the famous Wanaka Tree. The wind was blowing a gale, but the walk along the edge of the lake was very peaceful. 

We were surprised at the amount of branch debris at water’s edge. 

The tree itself looks very lonely, but is a good talking point and it was lovely to walk with no time limit. We also spotted a lovely field of lupine not far from the tree. 

 

We then wandered back into town and did a spot of window shopping. Our main objective was to find somewhere to have dinner that night. Our motel was lovely, however it had no in-room cooking facilities, so we had plans to treat ourselves to 2 days of no cooking/reheating. Such bliss. 

 

Dinner plans made - we headed back to the motel for our lunch. The. Robbie had a nap and I did some stitching for the first time in quite a few days. 

 

When we wandered out to grab our dinner - subway - we heard an extremely loud alarm. It consisted of several long beeps and I am sure it could have been heard for miles. We asked at the local 4 Square store and were informed it was an alarm that advised the volunteer fire fighters that they are needed. He said it would either be a fire or a vehicle accident. 

 

On Saturday morning I arose to see that it had snowed overnight. Only a little, and on the mountains, but it was special to see the change. 

 

We headed out again - this time to walk part of the lake in the other direction. We had not got very far when we found a crowd of people in hi-vis shirts and a number of children. 



Corporate ducks designs

We were excited to learn that the local Rotary club was have a duck race to raise funds. We purchased a duck each and it was only a short wait until the duck were making their way down the river from the library to the lakes edge. It was so funny to see. I am sure our ducks were in the group that had a break on some reeds on the way down. 🤣 

 

As we wandered back to the motel going through some of the town we did not see yesterday we found a charity shop. Oh dear - visiting was so important. We actually did find a couple of treasures 😉 then headed back to the motel for a repeat of the previous afternoons agenda. 

 

The motel we were in had 3 restaurants and we had decided to visit the Mexican one for dinner tonight. We chose 2 soft tacos each from the entree menu. They were all very tasty. We could have used Andy’s guidance. One of mine was pumpkin, cauliflower and pine nuts - we forgot to ask about the heat level🥵. By the time I finished my nose was dripping, my tongue was numb and my ears were red. 

 

This morning we were back on the road again. Our destination - Franz Josef Glacier. It was one of the longer driving days for Rob, so we planned a few breaks. 

We had some short stops at a few lookouts as we made our way along the edges of Wanaka and Hawea lakes. They go for miles and miles. Their size is truly amazing. 


  


We then stopped for morning tea at Thunder Falls. They were beautiful.

Our next stop was the information Centre at Haast. It has an amazing display on the native birds and animals. 




Our next stop was Knights Lookout. It has a spectacular view of the ocean and would have been a perfect picnic spot - however - we were so busy talking about the views at the waterfall that we left our chiller bag of dry goods beside the car when we drove off 🥴. No lunch for us. 





 

Our next stop was Franz Josef. We were a little early to book I to our motel so we did some grocery restocking, had some lunch and headed off to see the glacier. It was quite a sight to see.


Lots of clear streams 


 



We headed back to check into our motel. Another fabulous choice - thanks Sam. 

 


                                                Our view from the verandah


All for now

 

Take care and keep enjoying life. 

 

Rob and Liz.

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