Winter break in Wanaka

What do most people want to do in the middle of a cold and wet winter? Yes, exactly, escape to a sunny place. Lots of people in New Zealand will book a break in Fiji, the Cook Islands and even the Western Isle (Australia), but not us. No, we wanted to see snow. So a week in Wanaka it will be. A long drive it is too, about 6 hours, but well worth it. We have had a blast on our holiday so far! A Photo Stop at the Lindis Pass

What have we been getting up to? Although the start to our holiday was slow as Pete suffered from a self inflicted illness with Sunday being written off, we have packed in many activities and have some more planned.

Anyway, let's start from the beginning. On Saturday, we drove down, straight to Wanaka. We arrived just after 5 pm, and settled into our accommodation.

View From Our Breakfast Table

Darren and Stephen had also driven down from Christchurch, just for the night, so after a beer at home we set off to explore Wanaka town! And it has grown, since Pete was here last (in 1998!!). Yes, it now has a Subway, a Shooters pub and even a Speights Ale House. As it was a rugby evening – the All Blacks were playing Australia, the pub was packed. We managed to ‘claim’ the fire place and see the game, which was just as well seeing as the All Blacks won! After the match and dinner, we visited a few other establishments including a visit to a bar named The Local (which really was not worth our custom). The following day Darren and Stephen drove all the way back up to Christchurch and Pete suffered a slow death on the sofa before arising for a late afternoon walk.

Cardona Ski Field
On Monday we drove up to Cardrona for a day's skiing, but on the drive up the mountain Chantal’s enthusiasm faded when she saw the snow clouds moving in. Pete still was keen so bought himself a lift pass, and went off on his snowboard. Chantal was still contemplating getting out and onto some skis but as the sky never cleared she stayed inside, read her book and drank lots of hot chocolate. Not a bad thing, being stuck inside! Pete had a good time but decided to call it a day mid-afternoon as the snow had moved in making the visibility poor and resulting in a few wrong turns (and falls0 down some rather difficult terrain!

Nordic skiing
On Tuesday we decided to try something new so drove up to Waiourau Snow Farm: the only commercial place in New Zealand where you can go Nordic skiing. When we arrived we were surprised by the sight of an empty car park, but soon realised that that meant there were few people about – which was great. Anyway, we signed ourselves up for a lesson, got kitted out and were greeted by Lesley (a Snow Friend - a person who shows newbies what to do, so that you can get out on the snow. Lesley took us around Mary’s Run where we learned the basics, including how to fall and get up. When it came to our lesson, Lucy showed us the correct technique, how to stop, etc. She also took us around the Highlander, a slightly longer run than Mary’s Run. If you have a reasonable sense of balance from alpine skiing, skating or some other sport then nordic skiing is not that difficult, particularly the classic style which use grooves to ski in.

After the lesson we had lunch, in the comfortable lodge bar and nearly did not want to leave. It was so cosy and nice (and being sat next to a radiator made us feel as if we were back home). Anyway, we did go back out again and put into practise what we had learned that day. We took the easy, but long route to Meadow Hut. This is a back country hut, with lots of bunks, so people can stay overnight.

Leaving Meadow Hut to Return to the Lodge

We had no intention to stay but just wanted to see what it was like. You can reach this hut by bike, in the summer, so who knows, we might attempt that one day. The return from Meadow Hut to the lodge was quite tiring, and we were both glad to get back to base.

That night we slept like little babies, tired from a great day out on the mountain!