Tag 32 - Te Anau, Crown Range & Wanaka

15.01.2015

Exactly four weeks ago today, I picked up my car in Auckland and started my 6-week adventure. It's incredible how time flies.

I didn't sleep well and I'm already awake before 7 a.m., so this morning I completely repack my large travel bag. When you constantly buy things or dig things out from the bottom, the bag eventually becomes so voluminous and you think it will never close again. After 20 minutes, I'm done and once again amazed that I don't have that much stuff, yet the bag is still full.

I'm already down by the lake at 8:30 a.m., admiring the almost cloudless panorama and the reflection of boats and mountains on the water's surface. Lake Te Anau is really beautiful - maybe I should have taken a tour here, but I want to do that in Wanaka. Hopefully the weather will hold up. Because it's significantly better here today than yesterday. Anyone driving towards Milford Sound today has exceptional weather. At least on this side of the Homer Tunnel.

I quickly grab a toasted sandwich and a flat white and sit outside the café in the morning sun. It's not as cold as yesterday, thanks to the sun, although I'm still wearing a fleece jacket. The thermometer shows only 13 degrees.

My first task today is to find accommodation in Haast. That will be my next destination after Wanaka. Since I want to have time in Wanaka or on the way to Haast via the isthmus and with a view of Lake Hawea tomorrow, I don't want to drive such a long distance. Last year, I stayed in Haast and I know that there are only 3 accommodations there, one of which is a campsite. I find vacancies on the New Zealand Booking.com website, while nothing appears on the German site. The campsite still rents out small cabins for $150, so I decide to go for a motel for $125. The backpackers where I stayed last year can't be booked online, and I don't feel like going through a booking request and 3 email exchanges or getting a rejection tonight and then everything else is full. After taking care of that, I finally set off.

I follow Highway 94 eastward until Mossburn, then turn onto a smaller highway that leads north. The route is beautiful and beautifully empty. I'm accompanied by high slopes covered in tussock grass, gentle hills with deep notches, which are typically found as a result of volcanic eruptions. The sun is shining, and that's already a good sign.

I come across Highway 6, which runs directly along Lake Wakatipu behind Kingston and provides breathtaking views that would be even more enjoyable if I didn't have to drive a car through endless curves. 

In the distance, about 45km as the crow flies, you can already see Queenstown, which I want to bypass. But the views over the lake are simply amazing.

At Frankton, the village just before Queenstown, I turn right and take a short detour via Arrowtown. I already liked the place last year. It's actually more of a street with old wooden houses that could easily be the backdrop for a Western. 

The town itself dates back to the era of gold and silver discoveries, and you can also buy such crumbs and nuggets here. The first gold discoveries were made here in 1862, and the town quickly grew to around 7,000 inhabitants (now not even 2,500), many of whom were Chinese, who diligently mined a lot of gold and thus attracted the wrath of European settlers in the town. They were then banished to a settlement outside the city. Today, you can visit these mud huts, but I'll pass this time since I still have - depending on the route - 105 or 60km ahead of me. I get a real fruit ice cream, which is a New Zealand specialty. They take frozen fruits and mix them with vanilla ice cream in a special blender - ice cream couldn't taste any better.

Just past Arrowtown, you can choose whether to continue on the faster Highway 6, which leads 105km to Wanaka, or take the Crown Range Road that climbs up to 1100m and winds through a beautiful hilly landscape, passing through some narrow fords. The route is only 53km long and I drove this route last year and remember the great views of the high mountains and the large valley that stays behind, where Arrowtown and Queenstown are located.

Crown Range

Beautiful lupines grow abundantly along the road, and I could take constant photos here, but stopping is only possible at the lay-bys, where you should put on chains in winter. Unfortunately, the sky is getting cloudier and by the time I arrive in Wanaka at 2 p.m., it's overcast and only clear on the horizon, over the snow-capped mountains. Today, I booked a room in a YHA hostel. It's still $98, but at least it comes with a private bathroom. The atmosphere in the hostel is simply nice. People from various countries, as usual, but many Germans, are sitting in the reading room, in the dining area next to the great huge kitchen, and my room is perfectly adequate with a double bed and shower. Sure, there's no fridge or TV here, but I don't miss that anyway. 

View from the YHA hostel in Wanaka

Wanaka

I walk to the lake, which is about 100m away, and sit in the grass, looking at the lake and the clouds, which unfortunately are not dissipating. When it gets too chilly because the wind picks up, I walk around the town a bit. Nice little shops, many pubs, cafes, and lots of young people. Feeling completely relaxed, I sit down in a café for a flat white. There's a New World supermarket less than 50m from the hostel, and I buy a bag of salad, tomatoes, and stock up on dried mangoes. I could sit in those things all day. In Asia, they're always available - soft and tasty, not like the hard ones in Germany. Here, you can buy them in any larger supermarket at a self-service counter, and they're even on special offer here in Wanaka. Great!

Back at my hostel, I check the kitchen to see if there are bowls or plates to borrow. There are plenty! Hurray. So, I don't have to eat my salad out of the bag. I still have dressing from the day before yesterday, and before I enjoy my dinner, I sit at a picnic table in front of the hostel with a view of the lake and mountains until it also gets too chilly there. 

At 6:30 p.m., the clouds over the mountains in front of me begin to clear, and the panorama becomes more and more magnificent. I sit indoors in the lounge area on a comfortable sofa, writing in my diary and occasionally looking outside at this fantastic panorama. A truly relaxing day.

Writing in my diary in Wanaka

At 8:30 p.m., I make my salad, eating it while looking at the mountains. Afterward, I lounge around on one of the sofas, write postcards, and look outside as the sun illuminates the mountains. It's supposed to rain tonight, and rain is also forecast for the next three days on the West Coast. That's really unfortunate. On the one hand, because it's my birthday, and on the other hand, because I particularly wanted to walk around Lake Matheson, which I couldn't do last year due to time and weather constraints. Well, we'll see, sometimes the New Zealand weather forecast is wrong too.

I mostly hear German around me. An older gentleman - English-speaking - is Skyping with his wife, whispering all sorts of things into her ear. Everyone has to listen.

Wi-Fi is free here and in excellent quality.

I'm in bed at 10:30 p.m. and although I have plenty of time tomorrow because my driving distance is only 140km, I set the alarm for 9:00 a.m. However, my room is next to a side entrance, which can be used, among other things, if you come back after 10 p.m. The sound of the door slamming is extremely annoying.

Total distance: 242km