Wanaka

The drive from Fox Glacier to Wanaka was really pretty. It goes through the Haast Pass and along the Haast River. This is a fairly new route for vehicles. It is only around 25 years old and for a long time was only gravel. Lucky for me today it is all paved. We stopped at a salmon farm and Thunderfalls along the way

It was hot, hot, hot when I arrived in Wanaka. I am staying at the Purple Cow which has very nice views of the surrounding mountains and the lake. I took a few photos which is good because today it is cloudy and you can't see the mountains. I waited until 6:30 and then did two of the walks along the lake.

Today I took a shuttle out to the base of Mt Roy and walked up the mountain. I was a little off in the height. I thought it was 578m but it was actually 1578m. I couldn't figure out why it seemed such a hard hike. (The start of the hike was at around 400m and was 11km in length so it was pretty steep). Today it was cloudy threatening rain. Lucky for me as the hike was really exposed and would have be impossible in yesterday's heat.

On the way up I dropped my water bottle. I was afraid it was going to go all the way down the mountain but it stopped pretty quickly in a pile of sheep poo. It was the kind of water bottle with a pull top that you drink out of. The top was what landed in the sheep poo. When I got home later, I decided to sterilize the top. I washed it and then decided to boil the top. I stepped away for a moment and when I got back the bottle was gone. Bad luck for whoever took it (stolen or accident. I picked up another water bottle for 99 cents so I didn't lose out.

I have to admit that I didn't hike all the way to the top of Mt Roy. I skipped the last tiny bit because it was along a very exposed ridge and it was super windy. I didn't feel the need to touch the antenna at the top. Besides I was walking the six kilometers from the base of the hike back to the backpacker because I was too cheap to pay for transport both ways. The really good news is that my asthma didn't really bother me at all on the hike.

Tomorrow I will either hike the base of the Rob Roy Glacier or head to Te Anau or maybe Queenstown.

Pictures are here.