Wanaka

Lake Wanaka

After spending 5 lovely days in the Lakeside apartment we moved onto Lake Wanaka,well actually the small township called Albert Town which is about 4km away from the lake.The town is obviously the area designated for more affordable housing compared with up and coming Wanaka which has not yet got the eventladen qualities of Queenstown.Vicky and Maureen both preferred Queenstown but I liked Wanaka’s laid back easy going feel but perhaps it was the age thing again.Wanaka looks like the sort of town that wealthy Harley Davidson owners would frequent whilst Queenstown is more for the younger set.

Our stay here was our first taste of the New Zealand ‘Bach’ experience, this could be best described as anything between a shed and a high end mobile lodge, unfortunately ours was the former with furnishings not by Habitat more like the Salvation Army thrift store!

Anyway it was our base for 5 nights and our first really ropey bed that gave me some problems with my back that I was worried might interfere with my driving.However liberal use of ibuprofen,Sassy Red Beer and the  Tiger Balm purchased in Singapore proved to be a good cure.

We tried to spend as much time out of the cottage as possible although the girls said that they thought the place wasn’t as bad as I did.They visited Puzzle World , a mixture of visual illusion and puzzles whilst I drove around the lake looking at the property market .My idea of visual illusions I suppose.

Lake Wanaka is a smaller lake than Wakatipu and for that reason I found it to be more ‘homely’. Certainly a more liveable proposition ,with a full range of facilities which even included a boutique cinema which showed three different films a day in a range of seating options from floor cushions,lazybory recliners,2 &3 seater sofas and even a Morris minor convertible with its top removed.We saw Steven Speilberg’s Warhorse there which I have to say was a bit of a let down.

Author’s Note   am currently typing this in Christchurch where we are experiencing our first powerout so I am finding it very difficult to see my keyboard.Our host has just called in to see if we were ok and said sometimes happens if a car hits a powerpole or well we are in an earthquake zone!!