Wanaka ..... mesmerizing!
As I mentioned in my previous blog, the busdriver told us that highway 6 is more beautiful than the Great Ocean Road in Australia. So far what I have seen of highway 6 hasn't surpassed the beauty of the Great Ocean Road. However, that has changed today. The Kiwi bus drove us from Franz Josef to Wanaka. This part of highway 6 is called Haast Pass and Makarora Lake Hawea Road and it's 278km/178miles long. This part of New Zealand is definitely one of the most beautiful landscape I've seen in my life. Along the way you will see Fox Glacier, which is a glacier where you can walk on, just like Franz Josef. Lake Matheson, a beautiful mirror lake with an even more stunning scenery around the lake. In a distance you will see New Zealand's highest mountain, Mt.
The landscape around Lake Hawea is so peaceful, so quiet. A perfect place for camping. Lake Wanaka is maybe even more beautiful. There are no words to describe how beautiful this area is. Unfortunately I only had one day here in this beautiful area. The small town Wanaka is beautiful too. It looks very nice. One of the first thing I did in Wanaka was looking for a new camera but there just aren't any camera's in this town. There is a small electronic store in Wanaka but they only offered 3 camera's which weren't good. Too bad, but it didn't spoil my mood because the area was just amazing.
The Base hostel in Wanaka is great too. Brand new and again very comfortable beds. The TV room is outstanding. The kitchen is very clean and spacious, though I think when the hostel is full, the kitchen would be too small. We were lucky that there weren't many visitors in this hostel. The restaurants in Wanaka are beautiful too. There is also a very cozy cinema in Wanaka, which I recommend you should check out.
As you may have noticed, I've only used superlatives to describe this area near and around Wanaka. Even that doesn't justify how beautiful it is here. This place is not suprisingly one of the most favourite area among New Zealanders. Many wealthy and famous (celebrities) people live here, such as footballplayers (I don't know their names) and singers like Shania Twain. Also Tom Cruise makes a reference of this area in one of his movies (Mission Impossible III).
Though I have only stayed here for one day, it is definitely a place a want to visit again in future. (Pictures are provided by my fellow travellers; for more pictures, check the internet).
Next destination: Queenstown.
