Appeal Me An Orange

Those loyal followers who came to France with us on the last trip blog will remember my ‘pop of colour’ delights and I couldn’t resist another one.  The first thing I saw on this day in Wanaka determined the colour, and it was the orange kayak.

Di in the Sky

When I wrote the title to this post, Linz said “Jeez you’re sharp this morning”!!!  

Well, I have very little camera experience with skies of any nature and since being in Wanaka I have purchased a polarising filter – which basically just means that what you see through polarised sunglasses is what you can create in your shots.  Well, except if it’s moonlight.  Anyway, I’m still learning so here’s some of my practice

delicate and somewhat sombre sunrise over Lake Wanaka (at least we had sun while Auckland had a storm)

dynamic sky action in the hills at the northern end of the lake – taken at 4pm and it wasn’t cold, raining or dark, just interesting

Linz liked this one (keep practising Di)

Do You Take Me?

About half an hour after we arrived at our Lake Wanaka apartment, a helicopter landed on the lawn about 70 metres away.  Next to appear were two Australians who came over here by themselves to get married and apparently Wanaka is one of the top 10 spots in the world to do this.  Some of the following are not in perfect focus, but it all unfolded so quickly

it’s time babe, let’s go

boarding

a posy moment

are you sure babe? last chance

off we go to Twin Peaks – we’ll be back in 90 minutes

thanks and goodbye to the pilot

Edgewater Resort at Lake Wanaka

Before we left home we knew we’d want to stay somewhere very comfortable with great views after having moved camp several times in the previous days coming down the West Coast, so we booked to stay at Edgewater Resort. We found out later that it’s actually a time share and it’s expansive, very well maintained, has its own beautiful bar and restaurant and has a huge share in the wedding business as they are able to offer so much accommodation and a helicopter landing site. We were more than delighted with our spacious 1 bedroom lake front apartment and would not hesitate to stay here again, but perhaps for a month next time!

taken from our apartment	our lakeside block (we were in a unit on the right)	sunrise across the lawn
After the ruggedness of the West Coast we had some washing to do. What better place to get your pants dry quickly?	Linz shows how massive the poplars on the lake edge are	There was even a yacht race on our doorstep

Haast to Wanaka via Lake Hawea

Well, all I can say is that we were very lucky with the time of day we passed through this area and the fortunate weather conditions.  We know how beautiful the South Island is and we were spoiled with stunning scenery of a different nature down our West Coast route, but we were totally unprepared for Lake Hawea

driving up to the Haast Pass, we loved this sight of mist around the mountains	the mist cleared to show us the tip of Mt McFarlane	A huge shock at the top of Haast Pass – we think this was very recent and rather chilling to observe
first spectacle for the day – the northern tip of Lake Wanaka. It’s actually TOO MUCH scenery to take in at once so this is a mere snippet	totally indulgent photographer’s choice.  We took a short stop at Pleasant Flats where there was a forested mountain stream area and this little gem was just off the track	Linz being overwhelmed at the beauty of our first sighting of Lake Hawea, but wait, there is definitely more

….. nek minnit

Give Us A Sign

West Coast Delights:  we started you off with ‘Wee Creek’ and ‘Big Ditch’, but here’s a further selection of gems from our travels.  Yes, the camera person needs a medal for all that inning and outing of the car as well as perhaps a little OCD treatment.

Haast

From Franz Josef, we headed to Fox Glacier in the hope of enough of a mist clearance to fly over it instead, but that didn’t happen either.  So, we headed inland a bit to what is normally a stunning Lake Matheson.  We arrived to mist right down to the lake and it was bucketing down.  Tourists headed down the path to the lake – dripping wet within 1 minute of getting out of their car, and we thought, ah no, don’t think so.  So, we didn’t even sight Lake Matheson either.  Very disappointed.

Well, next on our list was Haast where we had booked a room at the Top 10 Holiday Park Motel and here are our thoughts on the matter…

Way down the West Coast there’s a place called Haast It’s so damned remote, there’s no cellphone maast The motel was smelly but the pub was a blaast We stayed for one night, but we should have whizzed paast

Yum, Haast pub food – Linz had the Venison & Mushroom pie and I had Whitebait patties, highly recommended

Franz Josef in the mist

Our luck ran out with the weather as we approached what we thought would be one of the highlights of our trip, Franz Josef Glacier.  We had planned to overcome the fears of one of us and do a heli flight over the surrounding area and up to the glacier.  Sadly, that was not to be.  We were a bit adventurous and at 9pm in pitch black we walked along a track into dense forest to see a glow worm dell.  It was unnerving and creepy being alone in a totally uncomfortable place, but the glow worms that we did see were beautiful as they were next to the track under a ferny bank.  They are impossible to photograph without a tripod so we just enjoyed their display.

We stayed at ‘10 Cottages’ – our one is by our red car.  Very well appointed and still new.	The view from our cottage – it should have been a stunning mountain view	on a misty and rainy day, this is the street view of Franz Josef township and all we saw of the mountain tops
can’t resist a quaint church	this sums up our experience of Franz Josef unfortunately	As we couldn’t fly up to the glacier, we were going to walk to the base of it, but it was pouring with rain and misty, in a word, miserable.  We turned back and headed for the carpark