Wanaka: It's tough at the top or at least it's tough getting there

Saturday the 4th til Tuesday the 7th of January: After arriving in Wanaka, my travel mates and me went to the lake for a quick dip (well I dipped, they took photos 😋) and to see "That Wanaka Tree". Seriously, that's how it's called on Google Maps. The tree was pretty unspectacular, but hey, we checked it off our list. The next day, Sacha, Sam (another traveler we met in Franz Joseph) and me did the hike up to Roy's Peak. 16 km, about 1300m altitude. It was a real challenge for me, as the path manly varies between quiet steep and very steep 🥵 The boys motivated me to keep going, as they were always a couple of meters (or couple of hundred meters 😅) in front of me. But the views really made it worthwhile. Amazing! At the top, we found a nice spot protected from the wind and had a long picnic break. I thought on the way down I could keep up with the guys, but nope... they just started jogging and rolled down the hill. My knees weren't up to it, so I took my time. In the evening we went to a bar, after having a delicious dinner at Bombay Palace. They had great live music from Scott Cook (scottcook.net), beautiful and some very funny songs! A wonderful evening! The next day was reserved for recovery. Claudia watched the complete Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I joined her for parts of the second and third film (nobody cried at the end 🙈🤫). On Tuesday we took off for Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki.