Wānaka, South Island, New Zealand

5th December – 8th December 2017

After getting on the bus at 7.45, in Franz Josef, we knew we had a long day ahead of us, even though Wānaka wasn’t that far away. We were driving and stopping all day long (at least once an hour), which was kind of frustrating, as I just wanted to be there. The views along the way were beautiful, so that helped the pain of the long day, and we stopped off at some pretty waterfalls too, so we could get up and stretch our legs.

After over six hours on the bus, we arrived in Wānaka at 2.30. We had booked to get off at one stop, but ended up getting off at the other stop, because we couldn’t figure out which would be closer to our hostel; we obviously chose the wrong one. We walked to the hostel, which wasn’t very far, but it was up a small hill. When we arrived, we were able to check in and we were shown to our room.

Once we were settled in the hostel, we went for a walk towards the lake front. Wānaka seemed to be a lovely little town, from our first impressions and the weather was gorgeous, so I knew we were going to have a good few days there. We went to a little cabin on the waterfront and booked ourselves into a canyoning activity for our second full day there. Neither of us had done canyoning before and the activity we had booked sounded very exciting, so we couldn’t wait.

After we had paid for our activity, we carried on walking along the front. We found some bars with happy hour deals, so ended up going in one for a drink. We sat outside, with beautiful views over the lake, before wandering back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we decided to have an early tea – mostly to stop me from snacking so much. Our dinner, was the final portion of the hot pot that I had made earlier in the week.

Once we had eaten and cleaned up, we chilled out for the rest of the evening, and watched some Netflix. As we had eaten so early, I spent the rest of the evening snacking, which really wasn’t great for me.

After a few Netflix episodes, we went to bed, ready for an early start in the morning.

The next morning, we were awake at about 7.30, so that we could have breakfast, before heading out. We had booked into an hour’s worth of paddle boarding for the morning, and after eating, we wanted our food to settle before heading to the waterfront for 9.

We got to the paddle board ‘office’ (which was just a van) a little early, so we were asked to go for a walk for ten minutes so that the girl could get herself set up. When we returned, we were given a quick briefing, telling us the best way to use the paddle boards, before we went out into the water.

Although it was quite a calm morning, the waves were still strong enough to fight against us when we were trying to paddle. We managed to make it into the middle of the lake, standing up most of the way. We took some photos and had a little rest there for a minute. Without even moving, Joe managed to lose his balance and fall off his paddle board, into the lake. It’s safe to say I couldn’t help but laugh and had to sit myself down on my board, so that I didn’t join him in the lake.

The hour that we had on the lake, flew by and it was 10 o’clock before we knew it, and time to get out. We paddled back to the beach and handed back the boards, before wandering back to the hostel to change my shoes.

Back at the hostel, we had a little break and a research of what to do with the rest of our day. We decided to walk around the lake to see ‘That Wanaka Tree’, the most photographed tree in New Zealand due to the fact that it grows in the lake. We took some photos, but had to time it correctly, as some children were climbing all over it – not very thoughtful of the adult that they were with, as he stood there and encouraged it, when he could see a crowd of tourists trying to take photos.

After our photos, we moved out of the way and started walking back around the lake towards the township of Wānaka. We had some little rests along the way to enjoy the views and the weather, and when we got back to the front, it was the perfect time for lunch.  As it is meant to be the food of New Zealand and we hadn’t had it for a while, we decided to have fish and chips for lunch. We bought lunch from the shop on the front and ate it looking over the lake at the snowy mountains in the distance.

Once we had eaten, we had a discussion of what to do with ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. We ended up deciding that we were going to spend the afternoon on the beach, having a sunbathe and a paddle in the lake. We lay there for a while, breaking it up with refreshing dips in the water, before it got too hot for us to lie out anymore.

As we were too hot, we moved into the shade for a little bit, to cool off. We lay in the shade for a while before making our way back to the hostel.

On the way back, we had to stop and do a mini food shop, as we were out of some bits that we needed for tea. When we got back to the hostel, I decided to cook the meals straight away, while the kitchen was nice and quiet, as it was only a small kitchen. We didn’t eat straight away, as we were still so full from the fish and chips lunch, but at least it was ready for when we were hungry.

After we had cooked and cleaned up, we sat outside in the shade and watched some Netflix on the laptop for a bit. After watching a few episodes, the time had passed quite quickly and we decided to have some tea, as we had become quite hungry.

After eating our curry, and cleaning up the mess, we chilled out for the rest of the night, before going to bed, ready for another earlyish start in the morning.

The alarm went off at 7.30 again the next day. We got up, ready for our canyoning trip and I made up fried egg on toast, as we were told to have a big breakfast. After eating, and packing our day bag, we set off towards the log cabin on the waterfront.

Once we were checked in, we sat in the sunshine, waiting for our guide to arrive to collect us. When he arrived, he went over the basic paperwork before we got into the minivan and drove towards the canyon.

When we arrived, we were kitted out with so many layers of clothing, ready for the water – it seemed far too many for the temperatures at the time, but Mike (the guide) said that we would need them. We had a thermal top, a fleecy top, a wetsuit, a wetsuit jacket, wetsuit socks, shoes, a hat, a helmet and the harness belt. We only put on the thermal top and socks and shoes at first because we had quite a walk ahead of us and it was too hot to wear everything for that.

After what felt like a hike, we made it to the top of the hill, and the start of the canyon. It was such a hot day and we were so sweaty, so before we got dressed, we were given some stream water to drink, which was apparently completely safe – it was nice and refreshing, so at the time I didn’t completely care if it wasn’t perfect.

Luckily, the start of the canyon was under the shade of the trees, so when we had to pile all of our layers on, we weren’t stood in the sweltering heat. Once we were all dressed up, we looked fab, but it was too hot out of the water.

Before we could start the trail, we had to do a practice abseil on the verge next to us, to make sure we had the technique before we got into the water. Once we all ready and had our practice, we set off into the canyon and were ready to begin our trip down the river.

The trip through the canyon consisted of abseiling, sliding, zip lining, jumping, swimming and walking and we were thrown straight into it with an abseil down the first waterfall. When it was my turn, I found it a little scarier than I thought I would have, but I did it and I was fine.

After the first abseil, we came to another waterfall, which was ten metres high. Mike told us that we would be sliding down it, but it was okay, as he was sending me down first to guinea pig it. We all thought he was joking at first, but when he told me to sit down and demonstrate the position, I realised he wasn’t. Going down was such a cool experience, but it was strange because pretty much as soon as I had pushed off from the top, I lost the rocks from underneath me and I just flew straight into the pool at the bottom.

From here, we did more abseils and mini slides, mixed in with some swimming and walking. We came to one part, which was the biggest waterfall along the route, and we had the option to abseil or zip line. We both decided to zip line, to mix it up a bit, but I made Joe go first to test it out. As Mike was attaching the girl before me, to do her abseil, his waterproof camera that he had attached to his suit fell off and into the pool at the bottom. Once we were all down the waterfall, he had a look for it, but the pool was too deep, and the waterfall was too powerful, so he didn’t find it. He was gutted and scared of telling his boss, as it was worth $700 but it wasn’t his fault and as much as he tried, he couldn’t get it back without goggles.

We had a little rest and a biscuit, before carrying on. The next part was a jump, into the same pool that the camera was in. We both wanted to have a go at everything, but when I got up to the top, it was much higher than I expected it to be. I did it anyway and it was cool, but once was enough for me.

We carried on through the canyon with lots of little zip lines and some swimming and walking and a forward slide. We came to the end of the route and it ended with a seven-metre jump. I was prepared for the height, my worry this time was the stone ledge that I had to clear in the pool. It was fine, as I just had to launch myself forward, and it was much easier with Mike counting me down.

By the end of the route, I felt like I was filled with water: it had gone up my nose, in my ears and it felt like it was in my head, so although it had been an amazing day, I was ready for the end. We had a short walk up, before we had a last zip across the river and a walk back down to the minivan.

Back at the van, we had to take all of our equipment off and sort it out into piles, before we could have our lunch. It wasn’t quite lunch, as it was 4pm by the time we ate but the time passed so quickly in the canyon, I never would have guessed that it was that time. We were provided with sandwich ingredients, and could make our own sandwiches – as many as we wanted.

After lunch, we got back into the minivan and made our way back to Wānaka. On the way back, Joe did his usual nodding dog routine, as he fell asleep, leaving me with no one to chat to. When we got back to the cabin, I shared my photos from my GoPro with some of the others, as they didn’t have anything from the day since the camera had gone for a swim. Mike said that he was going to get some goggles and fins and go for a dive to find the camera within the next week, so we just had to sit tight and wait to see if it worked when he found it (which it did, as we got an email the next day with the photos that he had taken before it went missing).

After saying bye and thank you, we made our way back to the hostel, via New World for some bits for tea again.

When we got back to the hostel, I was tired and headachy from all of the water that felt like it was inside my head. We chilled out for a few hours, as we had just had lunch, neither of us were hungry. We looked through our photos and sorted some bits out, before showering.

Dinner was a late one, as we didn’t eat until after 9pm, but we weren’t hungry until then. We had pasta with homemade garlic bread (which was very good).

After we had eaten, we chilled out on the sofas, and watched some TV. We had quite a late night (by our standards), as we didn’t have much planned for the next morning.

When I woke up the next day, I didn’t feel ready to leave Wānaka, but I had to, as we had buses and hostels booked elsewhere. We got up and ready and had to check out for 10. The staff were very friendly at our hostel and told us we were free to use their facilities as much as we needed, until our bus in the afternoon.

We had one last wander into the town and had a sit down by the lake, enjoying the views one last time. We didn’t want to do much, plus there wasn’t a lot to do, so it was nice to just watch what was going on around us.

After a while, we walked back to the hostel, as we had to be back before 12.30 or we wouldn’t be able to get in, as the office shuts for lunch and we didn’t have our key anymore. Back at the hostel, we chilled out for a bit. We enjoyed the rest, before having some lunch.

After lunch, we got our things together from the storage room, and made our way to the bus stop, for our 2.30 bus to Queenstown for the night, as we couldn’t head straight to Te Anau (our next stop), in the same day.

Wānaka is another beautiful place and, yet again, another highlight of the New Zealand experience. After hearing different conversations in the hostel, it seems to be one of the nicest places to live, as it had the great mix of activities, but was quite calm and peaceful at the same time. It is supposedly the ‘little sister’ town of Queenstown, as it is quieter and more contained, and as I loved Wānaka so much, it’s made me a little apprehensive about visiting Queenstown, as we’re not here for a party holiday, but we shall see what comes of it when we visit it properly next week.

To travel is to live, Katie x