Wanaka and Beyond

Wednesday was a beautiful day to hire a car.  By 11am we were out on the open road heading north.  Our plan was to drive up the West Coast stopping whenever we wanted to.  First stop, Wanaka.  It took us just under 2 hours to get there (we stopped along the way to admire the amazing views of the valleys and mountains).

Our awesome Nissan Sunny

I want to take a moment to talk about driving in New Zealand. It's nothing like driving in the U.S. Okay, it may be similar if we were driving in Auckland or Wellington, but for the most part it's a breeze. Driving on the left side of the road only took a little bit of getting used to, and unless you're in a town there's little to no traffic. Other drivers are generally courteous and no one is in much of a rush. I guess you could say it's like driving in more rural areas in the U.S. Also, there's almost always something amazing to look at.

From our walk around the lake

Wanaka is a small town situated on a huge lake.  We bought lunch at the Doughbin (pre-made chicken sandwiches) and ate on the beach.  We walked a little ways around the lake, but didn't last long as we had done plenty of walking over the past few days.

Lake Wanaka (from our lunch spot)

After an ice cream cone we decided to get two beds at the Purple Cow Backpackers (a place Katie had stayed the last time she was in New Zealand).  The Purple Cow has a huge glass window overlooking the lake and mountains.  After shopping at the grocery store we made dinner (vegetable stir fry) and tried to plan out what we wanted to see on the west coast.  With several maps and timetables we tentatively decided on going to Franz Josef, Greymouth/Westport, Abel Tasman National Park for two days and then on to Picton to return the car and catch the ferry to Wellington on Tuesday. Sound good to you?

Window out of one of the common areas at the Purple Cow

While at the Purple Cow we also signed up for YHA (Youth Hostel Association).  The YHA owns a number of hostels in New Zealand, and a few independent hostels are YHA approved.  It cost $42 NZD (each) to sign up and we got a free night stay with each membership as well as 10% off every time we stay at a YHA hostel.  The free night stay alone is worth half the price of the membership, which is why we ended up joining.  It's part of an international organization called Hosteling International (HI) which has hostels that we'll be able to get discounts at in Australia, Asia, and Europe.