Wanaka was honestly the highlight of our New Zealand trip. It was such a picturesque town, and we really really enjoyed our time there. The place we booked had the best views ever, imagine waking up to this everyday.
We had originally booked a sky dive but cancelled it in the end since I got too scared to do it, after reading all about sky diving accidents. I'm sure it would have been great but I don't think my heart could have taken it. In the end, one of our first activities was to go to the Blue Pools, which was a really easy walk but also really crowded! There were so many people swimming in the pools or taking a dip and just enjoying themselves. There were some boys who thought it was a good idea to jump off the bridge to impress the girls they were with 🙄. While the pools were fairly crowded, there was still a lot of space to just chill out and have space to yourself. We didn't go swimming as the water is too cold for us, we did take off our shoes and walked around in the water and even then, it was already too chilly for us.
We set off for Rob Roy Glacier the next day, and getting there was an adventure in itself. The drive was supposed to be about 2 hours according to Google maps but as there were no more paved roads after a certain point and you can only drive on gravel, it took longer than expected. Needless to say, the ride was extremely bumpy, I'm quite glad our rental car survived the trip. We went during summer so thankfully the roads were still pretty ok, I think it would be a much harder drive in winter. The hike was estimated to take about 3-4 hours and we used the toilets before setting off. Honestly, the toilets were really gross but since there wouldn't be any other better toilets along the hike, we just held our breaths and did what had to be done. The hike was honestly quite tiring, while there were some parts that were ok, some sections were really steep and narrow. We finally made it to the first viewpoint and took a much needed break to fuel up, rest our legs and enjoy the view. From the viewpoint, it took us another hour to get to the main section though we took another break to have lunch at another rest area.
After lunch, we finally made it to the glacier and it was absolutely breathtaking. We spent a lot of time just sitting there and marveling at it.
On our way back, we picked up a hitchhiker as it was beginning to rain and there is absolutely no public transport that she could have taken. We didn't want her to walk for ages, and it did help that she was a female traveller so we figured there was less risk in picking her up. We had quite a good time chatting and asking her what hikes she did. She had spent the night at one of the cabins up in the mountains and was telling us how it was like. Her original plan was to hike over the ridges but she gave it up as it was too challenging. As we are the types who can only do a day hike, we were most impressed by her.
After making our way back, we thought we would try our luck and headed to Kika for dinner. Since we went really early, we were lucky to get a table. New Zealanders are also quite casual so even though we showed up in our hiking gear, no one batted an eyelid. The food and service were good, definitely somewhere to consider going if you are in Wanaka. No pics of the food cos I realised I didn't take any good photos, was too busy eating the food instead of taking photos.
All in all, Wanaka was a really lovely place to spend a few days in. I do regret not scheduling more days there as it was a pretty little town where you can drive out to do some simple hikes or just spend time at the lake relaxing and people watch.
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