Day 10

We woke by the river, with the sun gratefully warming Van. We packed up and drove along the river though the town of Wanaka, and rounded Lake Wanaka to get to our appointment with our local rock climbing guide in an area called Rivendell (no kidding), to the climbing area Hospital Flats (not so auspicious).  

We met Dave an ex-pat from New Caanan, Connecticut, with a thick Kiwi accent to which he seemed clueless that he had. Clearly used to guiding complete newbies at climbing, he gave us a couple of very easy climbs. He quickly caught on, and ramped up the difficulty considerably. A couple of fun but challenging arête climbs gave way to him suggesting a lead climb.  After we both zipped up Are You Sure? Dave thought it was time to up the ante,  culminating with an overhung and burly climb called Critic’s Choice. Rated a New Zealand 20 (the equivalent of a 5.10b/c), we were thoroughly exhausted by the time we’d finished, just as Dave introduced us to a couple of NZ’s best climbers who promptly warmed up on our culminating climb.

We parked Van back in town, and got some lunch. Owen got fries with his meal again as the “tomato sauce” or ketchup had a delicious blend of nutmeg and vinegar. We walked around town, stopping in a local yarn store, and a few local establishments, enjoying taking our time. But indeed we once again had to hit the road. On our way out of town, we stopped at Puzzling World, a museum of illusions and puzzles, and featuring a fairly large labyrinth. With some fun and cool exhibits in the museum behind us, we hit the maze, and quickly found that we’d underestimated the challenge, as we weaved back and forth, retracing our steps many times, and finally finishing after hitting all the corners which were part of the goals. We probably covered 4km over the hour plus we were in there. 

Finally we found ourselves back on the road headed for Lake Pukaki. 

As we wound past the alpine peeks we were surrounded by flat open grasslands with a wide river cutting through.  The banks of the river and surrounding hillsides were covered with purple, lavender, pink, white, and yellow lupine.  We were continually and repeatedly astonished by the vistas we were approaching, and after each turn our jaws dropped a little further, until we got to our camping site at the base of the lake, which had a perfect reflection of the Southern Alps and Mt. Cook looming over. 

We sat in Van drinking wine and uttering expletives as the clouds rolled through the mountains and the sunset, streaking the snow capped mountain and clouds with yellows and oranges and reds. One of the most astonishing spots we’d ever been.