Wanaka — RachiePie

Tuesday, Alex and I left Fiordland National Park and drove to Wanaka, where we made our way to the Wanaka Lavender Farm. The drive took us up a winding hill with stunning views of the countryside.

Once at the lavender farm, we enjoyed tea and cake before taking a walk through the beautiful lavender fields and farm. Obviously, I was in heaven as they had miniature horses, highland cows, and ALPACAS!! Alex had to take a phone call from the car for a bit, so I spent most of that time watching the alpacas. They just crack me up.

We then headed into town and walked around Lake Wanaka and over to see the Wanaka Tree. The story is the Wanaka Tree started out as a fence post about 80 years ago and then sprouted into a crooked tree. Depending on the lake level, the tree is often surrounded by water. It is a popular spot to take a picture. And given Mt. Aspiring National Park is in the background, not a bad view at all!

We also went back Wednesday morning before our hike and took some pictures as the sun came up. Although the pictures look so serene, I added a “behind the scenes” photo. Obviously, we were not the only people hoping to capture the perfect shot!

After stopping to view the Wanaka Tree, we drove ten minutes further to do our big hike for the week. The Roy’s Peak Track is a 10-mile hike zigzagging uphill through tussock grasslands as you climb to the 5,177-foot summit. It is pretty much straight uphill for five miles, but once at the top, there are panoramic views of Lake Wanaka and Mt. Aspiring. The hike took us about 2 ½ hours to reach the top and I was elated to be done with climbing and to take in the amazing view. Truly, it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen – pretty much made the death hike to the top worth it.

That small white pole at the top of the mountain is where we are headed!

Thursday, we headed an hour outside of Wanaka to Rob Roy Glacier and completed the Rob Roy Glacier Hike. This hike is 6 miles and crosses through an alpine landscape which includes snowfields, sheer rock cliffs, and waterfalls. Once you reach the end of the hike, you can see the Rob Roy Glacier in the distance. Unfortunately, we hit a few road blocks trying to get to the carpark including cows and sheep blocking the road. Our biggest obstacle is many of the roads leading to the carpark get washed out due to heavy rains and flooding. Our small car was able to pass through a couple of the flooded parts of the road, but we hit a deep pocket and were nervous our car would stall if we attempted to pass! We ended up having to park alongside the road (there were already a couple of other smaller cars parked there) and then having to walk an additional 2-miles to the track! Ack! Ultimately, I'm glad we forged on as the views of the glacier were pretty darn cool.

Wanaka was one of the most beautiful regions we have visited since traveling around New Zealand. It looks straight out of a movie set and sometimes I have a hard time believing what I'm looking at is actually real!