New Zealand Day 9 01/26/2018 Photo Album

Friday began at the Heartland World Heritage Hotel in Haast. As mentioned in the previous post, we survived loud Bollywood music and a room infested with sand flies and mosquitoes. Amazingly lodging that provides air conditioning is not a given in New Zealand, and the Heartless did not offer that amenity. Needless to say it was a steamy night.

We stopped in Haast at the breakfast takeaway, where we chowed down on a scone with black tea, and I purchased a yogurt for the road. We met three young gentlemen using the Wifi on the adjacent deck and struck up a conversation. They were filming a Finnish woman (sisunotsilence at www.emilialahti.com), as she ran 30 Km per day along the west coast. One of the young men was from South Jersey and attended East Stroudsburg State University, another lived in Boston, and the third member of the film crew was from San Francisco and named Ben. We left them eating breakfast and fussing with their mobile phones, and we actually passed the female runner on our way up Haast Pass, as she descended.

Thunder Creek Falls

On the western side of the pass we stopped and viewed Thunder Creek Falls and Fantail Falls, and then we completed a thirty minute roundtrip hike to Blue Pools just beyond the summit. Blue Pools was an interesting place occupied by a crowd of swimmers on a hot day in January. Many of the swimmers were fearless, as they climbed over the rail on the swinging bridge and plunged into the ice cold aqua blue pool below.

Swimmers Line Blue Pool on a Hot January Day

Once we departed the Blue Pools carpark, we traveled directly to Wanaka, our destination for the next three nights. We checked into the Wanaka Springs Lodge, and Fraser, the male member of a husband and wife proprietorship, gave us a thorough tour of the premises. Our Wanaka digs were superb, although they adhered to the developing trend of not offering air conditioning. The heat wave continued and actually worsened during our time in Wanaka. We looked forward to swapping the cold of a Colorado winter for the warmth of summer in New Zealand, but record heat was not in our plans.

Meat for Our Turkish Kabob Lunch in Wanaka (Jane’s Being Assembled on the Right)

Once we were established at the Wanaka Springs, Jane and I embarked on a walk to the beachfront area, where we ate Turkish kabobs for lunch. I first encountered this delectable food in Coogee Bay, Australia, and the Wanaka version did not disappoint. The kabobs were delicious and huge.

We returned to the hotel to change into our cycling clothes, and then we visited the Bicycle Lounge, where we rented two mountain bikes for the remainder of the day. We paid the half day rate and the shopkeeper, who later told us she just returned from twenty years of living in Lake Tahoe, provided locks in case we returned after the 5PM closing time. We quickly took off and cycled east to Waterfalls Creek, and then we reversed our path to the heart of town and continued west to Eely Point. We stopped at Eely Point, so Jane could wade into Lake Wanaka, and then we returned to the Bicycle Lounge and locked our bikes.

Getting Her Feet Wet As Usual

Wanaka Tree

After this bit of exercise and while still in our cycling clothes, we ambled to the Speights Ale House and quaffed beers. We sat next to brothers from Hamilton, MT and engaged in a brief conversation. One brother was a hot shot who spent ridiculous hours of overtime in the summer fighting wildfires. The other young man worked in some capacity for a craft brewer in Montana. Their vacation in New Zealand was a chance for the hot shot to enjoy summer without the hectic demands attached to a wildfire fighting job.

Our next stop was the New World Market where we purchased an Asian salad kit and smoked salmon. This combination became our tasty Friday night dinner and ironically one of the best on the trip.