Paradise (Wanaka/Queenstown)

During our holiday in 2004 we really found “Paradise”. I will explain later in this chapter.
We stayed for a couple of days in a motel in Wanaka. Wanaka is a little village on the shore of Lake Wanaka. Surrounded by mountains and you can imagine that this is a fairy tale environment, especially if the mountains are covered by snow and the sky is blue.

Wanaka is the operating base to go to Mount Aspiring National Park. But we didn’t go there. We drove the Crown Range Road through the Cardrona Valley to Queenstown. And even not once but twice. The reason we did this twice was the weather. The first time the sky was a bit grey but to I fell in love with the Cardrona Valley, really love at first sight. The flowers were beautiful and in spite of the grey sky, it was still really GREAT. What else can I write to express my feelings about this area? It is quiet, rustic country but so extremely colourful. Maybe we were at the right time of the year. So I advise you to go there at the end of November, or the beginning of December.
Near the Cardrona Hotel it seems like they live still in the beginning of the 19th century.

So the first day of our stay in Wanaka we drove through the Cardrona Valley to Queenstown. It was a big surprise that the top was covered by snow and actually we were lucky that the road was open. Queenstown is known as the place were everything is possible and this everything needs to be very fast, dangerous or adventurous. So you can go skydiving, jet boating, paragliding, canyoning and of course bungy jumping, this has been invented in Queenstown. We just strolled through the little streets, along the shops and we took the cable car to a vista point. We enjoyed Queenstown, though we didn’t expect this, because Queenstown used to be full of Japanese tourists. But this has changed. It was a great day, the only minus was the grey skies so we were not able to take the photos we wanted.

Though we had a tight time schedule we decided to spend another day in this region. I did read in the Lonely Planet that you could actually find “Paradise” near Glenory. Glenory is a very small hamlet on the head of Lake Wakitipu. And a scenic drive brings you from Queenstown to this hamlet. And close to Glenory you can find Paradise. This is a paddock with a name but although New Zealand felt as paradise to me already, it was a challenge to find the real paradise. This day the sky was bluer that you can ever imagine. So the Cardrona Valley was like a painters pallet. We could take the same photos we made the day before but now with a blue sky. And the scenic drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy was unbelievable. The clear blue water of Lake Wakitipu, snowy white mountains mirroring in the water and than again the clear blue sky. No words can describe this sight. I hope the photo gives you an idea.

Near Queenstown is Arrowtown, an old gold diggers village. We did not have to time to visit this touristy place, we just drove through, but I think it is worth while a visit. Another thing you certainly have to do when you are in Wanaka is visiting Puzzleworld and this in really not only for kids and don’t fight in the maze.