Wanaka, Pt 1
Going south from Mt Cook, we finally reached Wanaka (well, we stopped at the Buscot Station again for a couple of nights, you know, to relax from the walking in Mt Cook). Everybody loves Wanaka - but I didn't like it so much at first. We stayed at the Wanaka Bakpaka, which is a nice place but too many people, and both me & Gal wanted to leave Wanaka after 2 days. Later I returned to Wanaka, to another backpacker and I really enjoyed it there, and now I love wanaka! go figure. There are Heaps of walks to do in Wanaka - Mt Roy, Rob Roy glacier, Diamond Lakes, and Mt Iron. At first we did Mt Iron & the Diamond Lakes climb, and that was quite neat. In Wanaka I met Yoel, whom I didn't see since I was 13. He was a really good friend of mine till he moved to another city back in israel. Small world. We also met Michal, and it turned out she went to school with my sister Gill. We took her with us to Queenstown, but unfortunately I don't have a photo of either her or Yoel!
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Lindis pass, on the way from Omarama to Wanaka. Not an
utterly exciting pass, but it's worth a picture. |
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Nice view of lake Wanaka from the Diamond Lakes walk. |
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Wanaka from above - this is the view from Mt Iron (it's a really short climb, just half an hour or so). |
| The next day I rented some mountain bikes and went 'round the lake, and into some other trails. |
Queenstown
From Wanaka we continued to Queenstown. All budget travelers
seem to hate Queenstown - it's so packed with people. While that's true, it's also
quite an amazing place. The lake (Wakatipu) is incredible, the mountain range around
the lake (The 'Remarkables') is very nice too. The second day here we did the Bungy
jump. It was a second time for me, and the first time for Gal, and it's an utterly
fun thing. Totally recommended, it's so exciting. Queenstown is called the 'adrenaline'
capital of the world (dunno where the mini-golf course fits in, though) - and for a
good reason.
The kiwis seem to think that if there's a nice place somewhere, you have to be able to tramp it, or climb it, or jump from it, or roll down from it, or fly over it, or be dropped from a helicopter/plane/baloon on it, or do some sailing, surfing, jet boating, sledging, canoeing, rafting, gliding, parapenting, abseling or biking. If all else fails - there's always the option to Luge down from it, of course.
The kiwis seem to think that if there's a nice place somewhere, you have to be able to tramp it, or climb it, or jump from it, or roll down from it, or fly over it, or be dropped from a helicopter/plane/baloon on it, or do some sailing, surfing, jet boating, sledging, canoeing, rafting, gliding, parapenting, abseling or biking. If all else fails - there's always the option to Luge down from it, of course.
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This is the famous Queenstown. You can ride a small Gondola
up a mountain, and that's the view you get. It can't get much better than this.
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Of course the Kiwis cannot leave a place like this alone - so they build
some silly cart race court on the mountain, called the Luge. Extremely childish, but then again somewhat fun, too. |
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Queenstown is a good place to do some mountain biking. I went round the lake (not the whole way, though) and that's
the view of it from the other side. |
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The shotover jet is another cool activity near Queenstown.
It's quite amazing to see the control these guys have over a jetboat, going upstream over rapids and all. |
Bungy jumping
I guess one of the cool things about jumping a bungy, is that you can
tell your friends you did it (if you survive, of course). So here's some space
dedicated to my jump (and then Gal jumped as well, so he deserves a photo too). We both
jumped from the Kawarau bridge (only 43 meters) - the first place where they jumped
commercially.
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The scary part is actually standing up there... |
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And off I go. I jumped backwards (that was actually my second jump, I jumped first at the same bridge,
6 years before!). They say it's more scary backwards, but I don't think that anything
can be more scary than a Bungy jump anyway! |
| I have no idea why is that fun, but it sure is. |
| Oh, dear.. |
| Gal's the man! |
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This is the Kawarau bridge (I don't know who's jumping now). |