WANAKA

A combined birthday present to ourselves was a weekend in Wanaka, a relaxed little town that serves as a base for ski sports in winter. It's a laid back alternative to Queenstown, adventure sports capital (and birthplace of bungee). We lazed around, watched a couple of movies, napped and went on some short hikes. Wanaka is set on a gorgeous lake.



This is where you build if you have vaults of spare cash lying around.


We stayed in a house built from haybales from the field right next to it! The walls are plastered and all of the edges are rounded, giving it a very cosy feel. Here's the view from the balcony.

Justin's banana chocolate birthday pancake!


Wanaka is home to the greatest movie theatre on earth: full of old couches and yes, that is a morris minor. They stop for intermission and serve fresh hot cookies and pizza and even after an hour of stomach-turning cannibalism in our movie those cookies stirred up our appetites.


NZ loves its themed junk tied to fences (toothbrushes, bras...). Here we discover a fence full of bike carcasses along a rail way line converted to a multi-day bike trail. We want to ride this thing on some operational bikes some day.

A classic New Zealand scene: sheep, grass and mountains. The sheep always stare, it gets a little disconcerting.