Day 60 – Wanaka – 13 November 2017

We had another busy day of sightseeing planned and set out for Lake Matheson about 9am. The weather was still a bit cloudy, meaning we couldn’t see the mountains in all their glory, but they were still magnificent! Before we did the Lake Matheson walk, we stopped at a lookout for a couple of pictures and then did the Jetty Lookout walk at Lake Matheson. It was a lovely walk, and I probably took more pictures of the vegetation (green, lush, very wet!) than I took of the views!

From the lake we made the short trip to Fox Glacier and hiked the half hour up to the glacier viewpoint. Though it is a short walk it is quite strenuous towards the end and I was glad when we got there! Once again the clouds didn’t play along but it was a scenic walk and the glacier was pretty impressive, though you can only see a small bit of it from that viewpoint and we stopped at another viewpoint for better, but more distant views.

Setting off again we made a few stops along the coast and at Lake Paringa for lunch, before turning inland and towards a series of waterfalls and the Blue Pools, which were amazing! Though we’ve been seeing lots of amazing blue lakes and rivers in NZ you simply don’t get used to the clarity and colour of the water, and the Blue Pools were no different.

As usual we didn’t stick around very long, although there were quite a lot of people relaxing by the pools, and we made our way along Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea for some of the best sights of the entire trip! The weather was absolutely perfect for seeing the lakes in all their glory and we stopped everywhere and took loads of pictures, although these are some of those sights where pictures cannot match reality in the slightest!

We were staying at Wanaka Hotel where we probably had the worst reception service we’ve experience on the trip – though the room was fine and even had a balcony and mountain views! As is our habit, we went for a walk to explore the very busy town. There are quite a lot of eating and drinking options along the lake, all of them seemingly very popular. We only had one drink at an upstairs bar with incredible lake views before opting to have a pizza (very good!) and a few bevvies at The Cow near our hotel. We were knackered after probably our busiest day of the whole trip (my most steps!) and we didn’t stay out too long after dinner before trundling off to bed!