Wanaka

The clouds “down here” remind me of those we saw in Patagonia. I wonder if it has anything to do with high, fast winds -

Anyway, we passed through some pretty dry areas…

… before hitting the fertile valley around the Kawarau River in Central Otago…

… which is a really strong wine growing region -

To get there we crossed through a relatively low pass (for here)…

… and drove through a canyon with a gorgeous river, and endearing name for us - Roaring Meg (a shout out to our god-daughter!) -

On our first day in town, we headed out for a long hike (of course), to Isthmus Peak -

There was the usual beautiful scenery along the way…

… but soon after we started we spied some majestic visitors -

Red deer

As we constantly climbed higher….

… we got better and better views of Lake Hawea -

As we neared the summit, we started getting some peeks of snow capped peaks…

… and of resting fellow travelers -

The view from the summit…

…is of Lake Wanaka, while behind us was Lake Hawea -

As we descended, we got to stare at Lake Hawea all the way down…

… and see what we missed as we trudged ever upward.

By the end we had hiked about 10 miles and gained nearly 3800 feet in elevation.

Earlier I had hinted that this area is becoming pretty famous for its wines, especially Pinot Noir. Between our stay in Wanaka…

Rippon winery

… and Cromwell, we visited a number of wineries and tasting rooms, and enjoyed many glasses of local wines at dinners

Mt. Difficulty winery

There is a willow tree growing in Lake Wanaka just outside of town. It has become quite famous due to Instagram, and despite my better judgment, I did go down to the lake one morning to see what it looked like. Of all the pictures I’d seen online, none of them had the tree filled with cormorants (Little Shags) as I did. Thus, I’ll close with my tribute to #ThatWanakaTree.