Welcome back to my traveling blog through New Zealand. Previously I talked about an amazing day trip to Milford Sound Well now it's time for another day trip.
The next place to visit was actually recommended by someone way back in either an air bnb or a hostel, I can't remember exactly.
Wanaka or more specifically Wanaka Lake is roughly about an hour's drive from Queenstown, the main hub which everyone talks about whereas Wanaka tends not to get mentioned as much.
That's because Wanaka is much much quieter with no fancy Luge rides, no shark speedboats, no bungee jumping or skydiving. Just a lake.
But it's definitely worth the visit. Partly because of the drive, but there's also a few water sports such as Kayaking and jetskis on the lake. I didn't do any of these as I was just there to soak in the atmosphere; and what an atmosphere it was!
The route takes you up into the hills and mountains and at first it felt like I was going the wrong way. The roads were more like tracks and it seemed like I was heading for either a dead end or the peak.
It's crazy how you can drive not far at all from Queesnstown and instantly escape all the hustle there.
I didn't know I had to drive over a mountain range :-S
The road then dropped back down weaves it's way between the hills and mountains on a long windy road. Seeing other cars was rare, there's just no traffic at all.
When I arrived, I was a little disapointed but that was due to the weather.
My first picture of Wanaka Lake
That didn't stop the paddle boarders and Canoeists
Despite the weather being a bit dull and grey, the place still looked impressive and as you walk down the beach (yes a proper sandy beach) you'll see a little tree.
It's know simply as "the lone tree" and is apparently one of the most photographed tree's in New Zealand. With a backdrop like that, you can see why.
The Lake Itself is pretty big, you need some form of transport to get round it and it's nice to get different viewpoints from different parts of the lake.
In this pic you can see the Jetskis I was talking about
Where did all the clouds go? I swear to god I didn't see them move away. I drove 10 minutes round the lake and all of a sudden, the sky was almost clear.
Recognise this?
Or this?
It's that same beach from earlier, just with a bit of sunshine!
Wanaka is a great place to get away from it all. You'll see tourists there sure and yes you'll see backpackers. But everyone goes there with the same state of mind, to chill out.
Maybe it was the weather that made this such a relaxing place but walking along the lake and further down river just felt so soothing.
One thing that I couldn't get over was the weather or more specifically the tempreture. It just kept getting hotter going into the evening. I'm used to Mid day being the hottest not the other way round.
At one point, I found a dried-up part of the lake. It looked as if the tide was out. As I I looked across the landscape I honestly for that moment felt like I was on a different world.
I mean look...
Still not convinced?
How about now?
Can you believe that this is the same place I was "dissapointed" with earlier? I sure couldn't.
Now if you read my post about [Milford Sound] you'd know that I utterly failed in taking a decent picture of the "mirror lake", it was either too windy or too dark and at the time I didn't realize that just because it was labeled "mirror lake" doesn't mean it's necessarily the best one.
Well I decided to take a stroll down river and watched the speedboats going up and down. But when there was a pause the water started to settle and I saw a very clear reflection of the tree's and bushes on the other side.
I waited a little longer
Not too shabby ay
As I walked back to the car, I took one final picture of Wanaka lake in the evening time.
I felt so relaxed and at ease as I left. Who would of thought that a simple visit to a lake could have such a huge impact on my mental health. But it wasn't just the lake, it was the people. Peaceful people living in a peaceful place. With all the shitholes in the world such as London, it's easy to forget that places like this exist and that people live here.
So that's all I have to say about this place, it's one heck of a breath of fresh air...literally.
Thank you for visiting
