Day 2 Wanaka to Lake Hawea - Maggie on the road!

the flight to Queenstown was uneventful, as was the night spent there - tho the yummy pizza at the Cow Shed was exceptional!  but not impressed with Monteith's Apple Cider...  More on that later KK.... :)

so early today, Maggie (still in her plastic bag) and I caught the bus to Wanaka, where on the footpath, Maggie was released from her bag and everything went back together again perfectly.

a trip to the supermarket and the bank and toot toot!!  we were on our way!  I decided to get off the main road onto the Hawea Track - and immediately wondered whether that was clever... loose dry gravel, with lots of sharp stones and corrugations!!  

but quickly we arrived at a camping spot and I discovered that the much more solid bike track continued over a suspension bridge, accessed by a steep stair case - luckily a board along the side to push a bike up...  but not fully loaded, so panniers off and a tad of grunting we were up on the bridge and crossing the Hawea River, its aqua green water fair rushing past!

the track lost its corrugations and was so beautiful, with the river on one side and shrubby stuff on the other.  there were pine trees and European birds and I began to wonder if I had ended up in Sweden again...  but no red houses or sheds, so no....

there was an option of cutting back to the highway at Camp hill road, but I decided to continue due to the beauty and peace and quiet - no cars!!!

I arrived at Hawea and pedalled across the dam wall into the little township, but then returned and headed out to the Lake Hawea Holiday Park (camping ground) where I was shown to my cute little cabin - actually a small container, painted up and cosy - right on the lakefront!!  sort of away from everyone, except that everyone strolls down and sits on the lake edge!

here are some pics - they might get captions at a later date - only 30 mins of wifi here!!

Lake Wanaka

Crossing Hawea River on the narrow suspension bridge

extreme sports - surfing a continuous wave or kayaking in white water

The damn wall - Lake Hawea

Room with a view - Lake Hawea

Lake Hawea

My Container, Lake Hawea