Wanaka

We left Franzjosef in the early morning and began the long journey south towards Queenstown. Before getting that far i would be jumping off the bus in the small lakeside town of Wanaka. We had a few stops on the way the initial one of which was at Lake Matheson, famous for being the 'Reflection Lake'. Basically it is a smallish lake with really still water so you can see the reflection of the mountains in its surface. Its quite pretty and we had a decent day so i walked all the way around it with a couple of others. We had a nice brisk walk as we were a bit tied for time but it was a good way to wake up! After that we had another few stops for some photos, food and the toilets but the next major thing was actually when we got as far as Lake Wanaka after which the town is named. Its a massive lake and we effectively had to drive the whole length of it to reach the town but the scenery on the way was superb. But mostly there was a lot of driving to the day and we got into Wanaka by 2.30. The hostel looked really nice and had a great view out over the lake itself. I figured that i would take it easy for the afternoon and do some stuff the following day. So i went for a bit of a walk and bumped into Cicero, the Brazilian guy from the bus. The two of us chilled out for a little bit and then i went back to the hostel for the evening. Later on a few of us went for drinks, including Dan, a guy i met in FJ and one who i was planning to meet up with in Queenstown and visiting Milford Sound with. But we went for drinks in Wanaka first and had a good laugh mostly at Cicero's expense due to his complete lack of a tolerance for alcohol.

The next morning i was planning to go to Puzzle World which is one of the more eccentric attractions I've come across on my travels. Dan was up to join me as well so the two of us made our way over. Puzzle World is an odd place but cool. It has a maze, an illusion gallery and a cafe with loads of puzzles on the tables. We started with the gallery and saw 3-D holographic pictures, the wall of moving faces and the tilted room where everything is at a 15 degree angle. The weirdest bit was a room that had a slop in it. From the outside it looked normal enough but there were two doors and if you stood inside one of them compared to someone standing in the other you looked like a giant compared to them. You could watch it all on a video link set up outside and its hilarious to see, especially with two people! After this we went outside to the maze and we had a race to see who could find the four corners and get out first. I was doing well by getting to the corners ahead of Dan but got totally lost and by the time i got out he was waiting for me with a big grin on his face. We finished the morning off with 3-D X's and O's where i got the upper hand (success!). Worn out from our mental activities we headed back to town. Dan went off for a walk and i went to watch Inception at the funky Cinema Paradiso.

If you haven't seen this movie yet then do, its epic! The cinema was one screen and littered with couches, armchairs and normal cinema seats as well as a car from which to watch the film. There was also an interval which caught me off guard, i thought the frigging film was ending! Later on we had the All Blacks v Wallabies in the TV room in the hostel so it was a pretty laid back day. The following day wasn't busy by any means either. Chilling in the hostel before hopping on the bus to Queenstown. Oh and i beat Dan at chess so i was getting revenge for losing at the maze!