Monday Jan 25, 2010 – Wanaka.

The weather was very nice today. We decided to head for Mt. Aspiring National Park.

First stop was a lookout over Lake Wanaka. The lake is 30miles long and 1000ft. deep. The bottom of the lake is below sea level. Most of the lake is not inhabited. The mountains are steep on both sides. The road does not go all the way down the east side of the lake. It was so beautiful. It was nice to have the binoculars to use.

We drove all the way to Thunder Falls the furthest point on our journey. All of us had been to the falls before, however, they were just as majestic and awesome. Jen walked out into the river a ways on the rocks. She ended up wading back in the water. It was quite cold. Our next stop was at some rapids up the river. There were some huge boulders. We were able to make our way down close to the river edge. The roar of the water told us about its power.

Fantail Falls was our next stop. Jen had been there before but not us. It was a short walk. The falls were beautiful. Jen did not go in the river this time. There were lots of children playing the water though.

We stopped at Cameron Flats for lunch. We are not sure who ate more us or the sand flies. We did give blood sacrifices. We all had to apply bug spray which only helped a little. Jennifer found out that sand flies really did like her. This was also a campsite. The fees were $6 per adult, $3 per child. That's $18 for a family of 4 for open field camping. There were flush toilets but no showers.

Our last stop in the park was the blue pools. I was a little nervous as one has to cross a swing bridge. The bridge before was rickety. Much to my surprise there is a new swing bridge. It was much nicer to cross. I was only a little nervous. There is also another swing bridge over the pools. It is new. Jen went down to the river on the far side of the new bridge, clambered over the rocks looking for a good place to cross the stream to get back. She waded across in a shallow area. Again the river was very cold. On the trek in we saw lots of people coming out. Many of the children had been swimming. Jennifer wondered how they got in the water. Again we managed to get here at the right time. Many people had just left so that we had some quiet time to ourselves. We saw lots of dead trees with mushrooms growing out of them. It was so funny to see.

One last stop was at a lookout for Lake Hawea. This is a lake just beside Lake Wanaka. It seems to be a more popular lake to do things on. There were more boats of all types and more beaches being used by people. The road leaves Lake Wanaka about ½ way down and crosses over to continue down the west shore of Lake Hawea.

Sunday Jan 24, 2010 – Wanaka

Not much going on today. We headed down town to see what was going on. Jennifer got some new flip fops. We looked around a craft fair. Charles set up a tee time for 12:40. He is off playing golf. Jen and I are just chilled. Charles had forgotten his hat and water. His face was burnt.