My Amazing New Zealand Adventure!: Wanaka!

Hey everybody!!

This was another amazing weekend in New Zealand. We were a little worried because it was forecasted to be rainy all weekend and we didn’t think we’d see the sun at all! We decided to go to a town called Wanaka. It’s like the little sister of Queenstown. There is a lot to do, indoors and out, and there is a lot of shopping, restaurants and people!

Saturday it was really rainy, but it was okay because we got to a lot of indoor activities! We drove up to Wanaka early Saturday morning. I can never get enough of this view.

Central Otago is really known for their fruit harvesting. Because of this, there are a lot of wineries and fresh fruit everywhere. We stopped in Cromwell to take a picture with the Big Fruit we see every time we go to Queenstown and get an ice cream at the juicery... they put fresh fruit into your plain ice cream or frozen yogurt! I got fresh mixed berries mixed in with Fro Yo! Yum Yum Yum!

Once we got to Wanaka, our first stop was a place called Puzzling World, which I have wanted to see forever! It’s a place kind of like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not but with all puzzles. There are holograms, distorted pictures and room and a room full of faces that follow you everywhere. It’s so much fun. I was like a kid in a candy store! The bathroom was a puzzle in and of itself!

This room looks totally normal, but the proportions are so distorted you can appear HUGE or tiny!!

In these pictures, I was standing up completely straight, seriously! The room was so tilted it made it look like you were really leaning far!

At Puzzling World, they have a maze called “The Labyrinth.” It’s awesome. You run through it and there are 4 towers in the corners, the yellow, green, blue and red towers. To get through the maze, you have to climb all 4 towers and then find out way back to the start. We decided to make it a competition! Whoever got out of the maze first won! We split up and decided to take pictures in every tower to prove we made it! I felt like Harry Potter going into the maze in the Goblet of Fire. (See I even have my magic wand!)

We did it!!! Courtney won, I came in second and Emily and Laura used the emergency exits because they were so lost! It took Courtney and I about a half hour!

After Puzzling World, we got some dinner and then went to the coolest movie theater I’ve ever been to called Cinema Paradiso. It’s a renovated church! They serve dinner, drinks and cookies before during and after the movie. They even have an intermission during the movie to refill your drinks or get a delicious famous cookie. Apparently this theater is the thing to do in Wanaka because the place was packed!! The coolest part about this theater was the seating inside. They had old comfy couches and recliner chairs. They also had a couple hollowed out cars with comfy chairs in them for people if they wanted to sit in there. We opted for the amazingly comfortable leather couches. I could have fallen asleep on that thing! We saw the movie, Argo, which was incredible!

The next day, the weather cooperated!! We got sun and heat! It was fantastic. We went out to the lake, got a quick breakfast and then took in the sights.

Then we went Kayaking on that pristine lake. We rented kayaks for 2 hours and paddled around the lake!!

We kayaked to Ruby Island, which was about 40 minutes away from the beach we started from. We were the only ones on the island, and it was beautiful! We had an awesome time frolicking around the island before we had to hop back into the kayaks and head back to the beach!

Then we popped back in the kayaks and went back to the beach. (Sorry there are so many kayaking pictures, but seriously, how cool are they??)

After our adventurous day, we needed to get home because we had to prepare for the next week at school but we decided to take the longer more scenic way home to Alexandra. (I don’t know what part of New Zealand ISN’T scenic, but a new road is always exciting.) Here are some pictures of our photo stops along the way!!