Wānaka

DAY 11

A Night Sky in a Cave

Before heading out of Te Anau, I took a quick boat trip to one of the glow worm caves on the other side of Lake Te Anau. No, you won't see any pictures of it because lights are strictly prohibited once inside the cave. Why? Because if we turn on our lights, the glow worms turn off theirs. Smart creatures they are, why waste energy if humans can do it for them.

Walking, or rather ducking down into the cave, I couldn't help but think of those thirteen Thai soccer boys who got caught in a cave like that for 18 days. Not in a scared kind of way, but it made their survival even more miraculous in my mind.

The first 400m are sparsely lit, and you can see and hear the thunder of the water rushing through the cave system. After a short walk, we reached the boats that would get us to the glow worms, and once we were all inside, the lights turned off and it was pitch black darkness. You could not see a thing, absolutely nothing. It took about 20 seconds though and an entire night sky of blueish light magically appeared above us. It was unbelievably beautiful to see those hundreds of thousands of glow worms illuminate the cave. Check out this Google search to how magical this experience was.

A few fun facts I learned:

Glow worms are really more like glow maggots. It's just great marketing to call them glow worms because who you would write home about just having seen hundreds of thousands of glow maggots. Ewww.
Glow worms may be the laziest creatures on earth. All they do is hang out in a hammock their entire life. Where can I sign up for that life?!
They actually spend most of their life as a maggot, because once they turn into a fly, they don't have a mouth or digestive system so they die witin a 1-3 days. Seems like mother nature may have missed a crucial part of life here.

Drive. Relax. Drive.

Remember what I wrote about driving on the left side on the winding road from Queenstown to Te Anau? Today I got to do that in reverse as I was heading to Wanaka. I've definitely gotten more used to driving on the left side of the road, and I only turned on my wipers instead of my signal about a quarter of the time instead of 100% of the time.

Anyhow, since I felt more comfortable and since I was actually driving on the lake side of the road, I could finally take in the amazing views from that road. The photo shows you one of those views... and the winding road I keep talking about. (No, I wasn't kidding, see for yourself!)

The 'road narrows' sign was only an annoyance this time instead of a 'you gotta be kidding me' moment, but I think the most amazing thing was the stop I had in Queenstown, about 2/3 of the way to Wanaka.

I had booked an appointment at Onsen Pools, and man was that worth it! You get an entire hot tub, filled with pure glacial water, all to yourself for a full hour. Your private area greets you with a glass of local wine (or any drink of your choice) and local vanilla ice cream (or your snack of choice). Tranquil music plays in the background and a scented candle burns next to the tub. As you walk in, you see the view you will have for the first time (see the video).

Soaking in that hot water was a wonderful experience, especially after three full days of hiking and 2 hours of driving. I left feeling rejuvenated and calm and relaxed.

I say this totally jokingly, but that feeling of pure inner calm lasted about 15 minutes because little did I know that the road from Te Anau to Queenstown was only a warm up for what the road from Queenstown to Wanaka would be like: Hairpin turn after hairpin turn going up the mountain, over a pass, and back down the same way on the other side. Driving on the right side I would have absolutely loved that road, but driving on the left side needed all my brain cells to be on high alert. They should put that as a disclaimer when you make reservation at Onsen Pools.

Btw, the purple flower in the first carousel are lupins and they line the roads here the same way weed (or trash) does in the Bay Area. Their colors are so beautiful, everything from a deep purple to lilac to white to pink and yellow. I have to get more pictures of that, it's so pretty.

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DAY 12

Hooker Valley and Mt. Cook Glacier

No, I didn't go over to the dark (or red) light side of New Zealand. Unlike what the name may indicate, there are no hookers in Hooker Valley (at least as far as I could tell). The valley is named after an English botanist, William or Bill Hooker.

Instead, you will find a glacier and ice bergs in the middle of an alpine lake at the end of the trail. This is a 10 km / 6.6 mi fairly flat walk with three swinging bridges along the way and almost no shade. I thought it was going to be cold but it turned out to be quite warm and I definitely brought my down jacket and even my long sleeve for nothing.

It's a very popular walk since it's accessible for all skill levels so it did feel a little bit like driving in the fast lane on 880 with a Prius in front of you. (You know exactly what I'm talking about). I'm pretty sure I was the fastest to complete the track during the time I was there because while I passed almost everyone heading in the same direction, I do not recall anyone passing me.

Something really cute was a sign on the road to the parking lot. It says the speed limit is now 25km/h because of two 'bumps' where the crosswalk is. I say that's cute because you literally do not feel any bump when you drive over it. If you bend down with a magnifying glass, you may see that that crosswalk may be raised by 1/8 of an inch, if that. The potholes in Oakland are higher than that and the city lets you learn that the hard way...

Of course, I also met the obligatory German on the way. When I got to the end pf the hike, I asked a young woman who was sitting by herself to take the photo of me on the rock. I promise, I had no idea and had not heard her speak, but when I asked where she was from, she said Germany. From now on I will simply speak Germany to everyone I encounter since nine out of ten times, they will turn out to be from Germany.

A Few Random Things

This is more a collection of random things about New Zealand that don't really fit into a story but that I think you will all enjoy. So here goes:

Ordering at a Restaurant

In both New Zealand and Australia, if you order an entree thinking it will be a full-size dinner, you gotta think again. Because here you start off your meal with an entree (aka appetizer), followed by mains (aka entrees). How lovely.

Paying at a Restaurant

That's different in every country, and I thought I learned from Sydney and Te Anau, but Wanaka proved me wrong. In Sydney and Te Anau, each table had a number displayed and when you're done eating, you simply walk up to the cashier (the same spot where you would wait to be seated in the US), tell them your table number and pay. This time, I sat at a table without a number so I asked my server what number it was so I could go pay. She was very kind and told me that she would happily bring me the bill (not check) so I could take it to the cashier. I told her I was still trying to figure out how things work in New Zealand and she said that pretty much every restaurant does it differently and it's up to you to figure out which system they use. Trying to keep you on toes, those New Zealanders.

A Third Eye for Your Car

At first I thought it was just a weird one-off but now that I've driven around New Zealand for a few days, I noticed this is by no means an exception. There are quite a few cars driving around with a third mirror attached to the side of the hood of the car. I think most are on the left? It looks like a horn sticking out. Yes, they do also have the side mirrors so it's not a replacement but other than checking if a kea or wallaby is getting a free ride on the side of your car, I have no idea what the purpose of that mirror is. I'll file that one under 'NZ Oddities.'

Domino's Pizza

This is just an observation but I've seen quite a few Domino's Pizza cars driving around Wanaka. Or maybe it's just the same one? Anyway, this is a pretty sad observation for multiple reasons. (1) The mere fact that Domino's has franchises in NZ is sad. (2) I hope that they are not delivering to tourists because if you flew all the way to NZ to order Domino's, I sincerely question your life choices. (3) In Germany, going to a KFC or Taco Bell is an event, because there are very few of them around. I really hope that going to Domino's is NOT such an event for kiwis...

Drunk Pigeons Are a Thing

I've seen this bird a few times but never close or long enough to take a photo. It's called Kereru and it's a type of big pigeon (but much prettier than the rats with wings we have in the US and Germany) that lives in New Zealand. It's famously (or infamously) known for being the college student of birds, basically getting drunk, sleeping it off, just to get drunk again. Did I mention they also randomly fall off of their trees because they're so drunk? Why you ask? And how you ask?

Well, apparently they don't eat fresh fruit from trees or bushes. Instead, they eat the rotten aka fermented aka alcohol-containing fruit that has fallen to the ground, get drunk in the process, go to sleep it off and come back for more the next day. Our guide said that sometimes the birds are so drunk, they have to be brought to wildlife centers to sober up. Those similarities between humans and animals...

Tennis Courts with Yellow Lines... Hmm..

Of course I had to check this out when I saw the 'tennis courts' sign. Wanaka has a mini tennis club (or public facility, I can't quite tell) with six courts. Four all weather courts (with psychedelic green colors) and two grey hard courts. The odd thing is, the all weather courts have yellow lines. At first I made a mental note to myself to get my eye sight checked out when I get back home. But it's not my eye sight that's playing tricks on me. The lines really are yellow. Another thing to file in the "NZ Oddities" folder.

DAY 13

The Million-Dollar View I Didn't Plan For

One of the advantages of traveling alone is that you can create your own itinerary and change your mind and do something else whenever you want. That's exactly what I did today. The temperature was forecast to be 32 C/ 90 F, and as much as I love hiking, that's not the temperature I want to hike up one of the steepest and most exposed hikes on the South Island: The 7+ hour, 16 km/10 mi Roy's Peak hike with a 1228 m/4000 ft elevation gain.

So I decided to do a different, much shorter hike close by. I actually passed the Roy's Peak parking lot on the way to my hike and there was not a single empty spot at 9 am. So either a lot of hikers started at the first light to beat the heat (I hope so!), or they are just plain crazy hiking in these conditions (I hope not!). I didn't hear of any heat strokes on that trail so it must have been all early birds, thank goodness.

Anyway, so I chose to hike the Diamond Lake & Rocky Mountain Trail instead, which is roughly a 3 hour hike with some shade in parts. I was definitely a little bummed I didn't get to do Roy's Peak but when I got to the top of this one, I was not sad any more. Just look at that view of Lake Wanaka! That's a million-dollar view right there. So worth it, and I'll just keep Roy's Peak on my list as a reason to come back to New Zealand.

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That Wanaka Tree

No, I wasn't too lazy to look up the name of this tree. This is literally what it's called: That Wanaka Tree. It's even got its own hashtag on IG #thatwanakatree. Some claim it's the most photographed tree in all of New Zealand. And I now understand why. Kinda.

Legend has it that this tree started out as a fence post 70 years ago. Somehow it defied all odds and started growing into the tree it is today. How? No idea. Probably some kind of magic? Or maybe Lake Wanaka really is the fountain of youth?

Either way, a local artist took a photo of the tree a few years ago and won a New Zealand photography awards. Ever since then, this tree has become a IG phenomenon. And I saw it too! #thatwanakatree

I wouldn't know this until around 9am the next day, but my last full day in Aotearoa would take back to where it started: Queenstown.

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