Winter Break in Wanaka (Part 2)

Cycling

When we loaded the car in Christchurch, we even packed our road bikes! So on Wednesday we pumped up the tyres, got comfortable with the cleats (Chantal) and set off for a ride. The route was planned by Pete, so it was no surprise that our bike ride would incorporate a visit to a pub!

A great pub, it is, too! The Cardrona Hotel is truly old, and has got a great feel to it. The barman was not at all taken aback by seeing lycra clad people entering the pub, with their bikes in hand (we forgot to take a bike lock!). He even asked if we were going on to Queenstown. Now, we might be active, but that would be really crazy. We had a couple of beers and a bowl of wedges, and then made our way back to Wanaka. The return journey was much quicker. Not sure whether that was because of the fuel in our belly (alcohol can do wonders, don’t you know?) or the knowledge that at home more beer could be had or even the fact that the return journey was downhill? Anyway, the journey to the Cardrona Hotel took us one hour and fifteen minutes, whereas the ride home only took us forty five minutes. Cycling on empty roads is lovely – it was a good place to practice clicking in and out of cleats and the scenery was wonderful!

Another Day on the Snow

We had planned to go back up to Cardrona on Thursday, but on the drive there Pete changed his mind and we found ourselves back at Waiourau Snow Farm. The reason for this change of mind was that Pete did not want to be by himself on the slopes again (Chantal does not really like alpine skiing so planned to sit inside the restaurant again, drinking lots of hot chocolate and reading a book). So Nordic skiing it was instead! Once again it was beautiful weather: a clear blue sky and the sun shining – what a great day to be in the outdoors! Today we decided to follow the trail to the Bob Lee hut. This intermediate trail would take us past Meadow Hut, so we were familiar with the start of the route. This time, though, we took the quicker route there, which knocked off quite a bit of time.

Anyway, the scenery was spectacular and the empty trail was superb!

When we got to the Bob Lee hut, Pete had to have a cup of tea! Yep, the hut is fully kitted out, with gas burners, tea bags and all! Again, this hut is also accessible by mountain bike, so we might be back one day.

A Walk in the Park?

On Friday we felt we needed to do something we had not yet done that week, so we went for a walk. We chose a 5-6 hour walk, and from the description we worked out that we would be rewarded with some amazing views. Little did we know that the entire walk consisted of a steep climb up a mountain and the way down would follow the exact same path. Anyway, we tramped our way up, dodging the cow pats and rabbit droppings, until we hit the snow line. This proved to be slippery business, and then the snow cloud started to close in on us. We got so close to the top, but realised that there would be no shelter at the top. As we would not be able to hide from the snow, we did not really want to wait around for the cloud to clear. Nor did we want to become another statistic: a person that needs to be helicoptered down, so with probably only 15 more minutes to climb we decided that it would be in our best interest if we turned around. Of course, as we were making our way to the car, the snow clouds cleared and the views at the top would have been amazing, but we will have to make do with seeing that on postcards instead!

One Last Go

On Saturday, we left our accommodation and our stay in Wanaka was officially over. However, Pete still wanted to hit the slopes, so up we went to Cardrona. And what a difference the weather makes! From the café, I had a great view of the slopes, and finally could see what Cardrona looked like! Pete got himself a half day lift pass, and must have had a great time as I did not see him at all! And what did I do? I read my book, wrote a blog about our holiday, did a lot of people watching and had to have the obligatory hot chocolate!