Hello again and welcome along to this week’s mrlukeniktravels blog coming from New Zealand. As I write I am in the country’s adventure capital, Queenstown. I have just arrived here so I will be talking in this post about the previous week in Lake Hāwea and Wanaka. In a disappointing divergence of form, as I write rain is falling heavily on the decking outside. I suppose the grass has to be kept green somehow! However, today is an exception to much of my time in New Zealand. Yesterday I travelled down to here from the Wanaka region, including passing over Crown Pass, the highest metalled roadway in the country. My small-engine hire car just about made it…
After taking a leisurely four hours to travel down from Fox Glacier, including a few stops for photos, I arrived at Lake Hāwea. The lakeside village is around 15 minutes drive north-east of the town of Wanaka. Lake Hāwea village is small and quiet, but the surrounding scenery is very impressive. The lake is 35km long, covers 141sqkm and is at maximum 392m deep. For those who are not fully metric that is: 21 miles long, covers 51 square miles and is at maximum 1,285 feet deep. The surrounding mountains rise over 1,400m above the lake, giving an impression of just how sculpted the landscape is. With strong winds when I arrived the waves on the lake were sizeable with plenty of surface area to develop.
There will be no surprise to regular readers that much of my time in the Wanaka region was spent in the mountains. For me in areas such as this accommodation is simply a place to recharge ready for the next foray skyward. This is why am here in the New Zealand summer where I can make the most of the good weather (and avoid super-hot Australia). Of course, there are also many other people who want to enjoy it here too. I usually find that heading further out on the steeper and more challenging hikes is a way to get away from the crowds. Having a car also means great flexibility in where I can hike and stay to be near good trail heads. One day last week, however, I did overstretch myself. I climbed to the summits of Isthmus Peak and Mt Maude before returning to the car park. Taking three hours less than suggested with a lot of height gained and lost, took its toll on me. Sore and cramping legs were a feature of that evening- not nice!
At the time of my first arrival in Wanaka the town was holding its annual triathlon. The roads were a maze of diversions, one-way and closed routes. It was not the easiest to navigate around an unfamiliar town with these interruptions! Still, it was great to see all the athletes competing and having a great time. The torrential rain that accompanied the start wouldn’t have been a concern for those swimming out into Lake Hāwea. Very inspiring. Seeing all those taking part did make me reminisce on my endurance event days. Once I am back in the UK, who knows they might return?!
Although not competing in a triathlon, I did manage to get a good amount of swimming done in Lake Hāwea. I try to swim in open water as much as possible. The main reason for this is the beautiful natural surroundings, but also swimming pools contain chemicals that trigger some kind of mild allergy for me. I prefer to avoid the sore red eyes and sneezing if possible! Swimming is also a great way to easy muscles sore from scaling mountains during the day. I’m calling it free hydrotherapy. Mountain lakes are also considerably safer than the open Tasman Sea which is not known for calm conditions. Even if the water is a little cold, it is character-building stuff (I think!).
That is all for this week’s post chronicling the Wanaka region. Next week I shall be in Invercargill, right on the southern edge of the South Island. Before then I will be passing through Te Anau, Milford Sound and Fiordland National Park so there will be plenty of pictures to share. Thank you to all of those who have subscribed to the email updates. If you would like to follow suit, there is a button below. If a week is too long to wait then there is my twitter feed which can be found via @mrlukeniktravel. Similarly, photo updates and, when I can get it to work, stories are available through my Instagram feed @mrlukeniktravels. All that remains to be said from Queenstown is stay safe and travel on!
