Our Weekend in Wanaka

We spent Queen's Birthday weekend with Vanessa and friends in Wanaka.  We would be spending the weekend with Sheryl and Mike Wright and their son Taylor, friends of Vanessa's from Dunedin who were also planning on heading to Wanaka for the weekend.  Sheryl is the famous Dunedin barista we mentioned in the Rainy Day in Dunedin post.  We picked up Sheryl first thing in the morning (Mike and Taylor were coming later after Taylor's soccer game) and were off on our way. The drive there was fantastic and full of fun.

We saw a 'hoar frost' (not whore but sounds the same!) which I don't quite understand, but you can read more about it here.  This picture is of trees with a hoar frost.  It looks like an ice storm hit but only on the trees.  Take note of the mist...it just sits there in the valley.  You can see below it and above it, but it looks like someone took an eraser to the middle of your view.

We stopped in at old friends of Sheryl's for tea and then had lunch in Clyde at The Bank Cafe - delish!

One thing we saw everywhere but couldn't get a picture of was (nicknamed by yours truly) Spider Sheep!  Sheep were grazing away on hills that were unbelievably steep.  I couldn't understand how they weren't falling off or rolling down.  Needless to say, the term stuck, and we all kept saying "Spider Sheep!" every time we saw some sheep balancing on a crazy hill.

From there it was about an hour to Wanaka and this is where the views were really incredible.  We felt like we were walking through the set of Lord of the Rings, and thanks to our Lord of the Rings Location Shoot Guidebook, we read that many parts of the movies were shot in the area.  (Remember you can click on any of the pictures for a bigger view.)

In Wanaka, we were staying at the holiday home of a friend of Sheryl's.  As soon as we got there, we sat outside on the upper deck to savor the last minutes of sunlight, the views, and a nice bottle of wine.  The house faced Lake Wanaka which is surrounded by hills and mountains.

The view from the deck...

Vanessa enjoying the view and the wine...

Sunset over Lake Wanaka...

Saturday night we played games (they love Sequence!) and turned in early, ready to head to Queenstown on Sunday morning.  However, the weather was not our ally in this venture.  We headed out for Queenstown on Sunday morning and got to the top of the Crown Range, the mountains separating Wanaka and Queenstown, and it was snowing.  The drive down the other side did not look like a lot of fun, and we didn't know what it would be like 8 hours later on our drive home, so we decided it would be a Wanaka-only weekend.  We turned around and headed back to Wanaka.  After lunch and a bit of souvenir shopping, it was back home for an afternoon and evening of naps, reading, and more games.

Monday morning was still rainy, but we spent the morning at Puzzling World.  It's one of those random roadside attractions that has some pretty cool parts.  We did the Illusion Rooms which included the Hologram Hall, the Hall of Following Faces, the Titled House (a room on a 15 degree angle which doesn't sound like a big deal but is a HUGE deal and practically made me throw up), and the coolest thing, the Ames Room.  The Ames Room/Illusion is the illusion they use to make people appear different heights.  It was pretty cool, and we had tons of fun taking pictures of us in it.

And there was even an illusion outside the bathrooms...

Turns out opting out of Queenstown was a good idea.  The weather and mountains in and out of Queenstown made driving pretty sketchy, and Vanessa knew a few people who also altered their weekend plans.  We'll save Queenstown for another weekend.

The last great thing we learned about during our Weekend in Wanaka was the beauty of the electric blanket.  Now, maybe you're like me and the thought of electric blankets has always scared the hell out of you, because you thought you would set yourself on fire.  Apparently, electric blanket technology has come far, and instead of being a blanket you cover yourself with, it's more like a mattress pad. It lays under the fitted sheet.  What you do - as we did per the Wright family's expert instruction - is to turn on the electric blanket a couple of hours before you go to bed.  When you're ready to go to bed, you turn the blanket off (phew, no getting set in fire while sleeping), but THE BED IS ALREADY SO FREAKIN' WARM THAT IT IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD TO CRAWL INTO!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how lovely it was to crawl into a toasty warm bed.  Over the course of the night, the bed stays pretty warm thanks to your own body heat and thick duvets.  IT'S AMAZING!!!  I'm so tempted to purchase one...but don't worry, I'll make sure it's safe.  The New Zealand government has lots of good advice on Electric Blanket Safety.

Finally, we took lots more pictures over the weekend than we've posted here - like this one.  To see them all, click over to our Weekend in Wanaka photo album.