Clowning Around NZ & Australia: #3 January 2018 West Coast to Wanaka.... from Wet to Dry

Blog #3

We left Lake Mahinapua heading south stopping briefly at Okarito.
This was the first sign that stopped me:

This was summer but rain and an overcast day gave it a special eeriness!

Below is the little wharf building at Okarito with info about the area

At Lake Mapourika we had lunch (still raining)

This is the Raurenga.... Kidney Fern

So delicate.

At Franz Joseph we decided there was no point going to Jackson Bay because of mist and weather.

Parked up at another DOC camp at Pleasant Flat in the Haast Pass area.
There is a great collection of different rocks in the creek.

A large group of cyclists are here.

I rode the uni around the camp.

Below is the painless way to get off of a unicycle!

Another quiet night, no internet or phone signal. Leftovers for tea with toast.

After a late start we managed to get away around 9 a.m. Rain most of the night.
We stopped at Thunder Creek which was a nice little waterfall,

Then onto the Fantail Falls which were impressive. More impressive were the stones that had been balanced all over the river bed, by fellow tourists, It had been dry for a long time on the coast so there were a lot of special piles of stones. The tourists creating their own tourist attraction. Quite special really, and I felt really added to the scene.

The weather was clearing as we motored through the Haast Pass and onto the top end of Lake Wanaka, before going over the neck to Lake Hawea. As we motored into Hawea the surrounding countryside was very dry, bare earth showing in most places.

Onto Wanaka where we had lunch in a cafe on the waterfront.
I rode the uni around Pembroke Park and down on the water front where I noticed they were getting ready for a duathlon & triathlon which were happening the next morning.

I had a swim in the lake then went over to the park & did some good yoga in the sun...the temperatures now in the 30s.

At Albert Town we parked the bus in the free park at the Albert Town Hotel.

Awake early and leaving Albert Town for Wanaka, I biked down to see the start of the duathlon and triathlon starting at 8am, then go to a Hot Yoga class at 8.30am. I was going to bike the trail along the Clutha River, but at the first sign board it looked like it was going to be over 1.5hours into town, so I cut it short and cut across country by getting back onto the roads.

Got there before 8am and watched some of the triathlon:

Then went to the Hot Yoga, a big class. It was quite intense, first time I’ve actually dripped off my face cheeks from both eyes in the pose of a child.

Sunday 14th Jan 2018 at Albert Town.
Awake around 6am....didn’t get moving till the sun was well up and the heat of the day was building! We went into town on the Outlet Track.

We parked up the bikes near the info centre and walked to Pembroke Park to the Market.

I also talked to the woodworker Simon King who I had met at the Alternative Furniture show in ChCh in the 80s.

We had lunch at the Watertank Bar & can recommend the $10 pizzas which were very good.

We biked through town back past Mt Iron and back to the bus at Albert Town. We then went back into the Caltex which had a laundry.

We also checked out Erik's Fish and Chips as the queue was long!

But I wasn't game with the Kiwifruit!

Both of us went around the lake by bike to see the Wanaka Willow Tree. This is totally out of the water due to local drought conditions, so the tree was surrounded by Chinese taking weird photos of themselves.
When there was a lulI in Chinatown, I rode up and leant my bike against the tree!

I fuelled up ready for the off tomorrow! After tea of Salad and leftovers we sat outside with our computers and booked our flights to Aussie for May & June.

In the morning we skyped our friend Madi in Switzerland, ain't the modern technologies amazing!