Wednesday 7 November 2018

Back to cloudy weather. And a day of driving down to Wanaka. We headed off around 9am.

After about half an hour, we drove past fox glacier. And stopped for a walk around Lake Matheson – a famous reflecting lake. On a clear day the glacier and mountains reflect in the lake.

It’s a half hour round trip walk to the lake, through rainforest.

Today though, clouds completely covered the sky and the mountains. So it was rather a dull view.

Then it started to rain. We wound around the mountains, unable to see anything. Which was a shame.

We stopped for a short walk to a waterfall. In the rain.

We were driving along the Haast pass – between the mountains. This is part of the south west New Zealand world heritage area. But due to rain, saw very little.

Then stopped further along for a view of Lake Wanaka. And the rain had stopped! And we had a bit of blue sky!

We arrived about 3pm. I left my bags and went for a walk around the lake.

I went further than I had planned to, and came across the floating tree. A willow tree which is a few meters out into the water. It even has its own hashtag (#thatwanakatree) a bit ridiculous….

The lake was really pretty – yellow and purple flowers surrounding the whole edge of the lake. And the mountains in the background. With the clouds slowly clearing and revealing the snowy tops.

I picked up a few bits from the supermarket – and some more kombucha! And lazed around for the rest of the evening.

I was hoping for a sunset. But the clouds had covered back over, so no chance of that.