Kiwikirks’ last day at Wanaka

As you know, our time of day is eighteen hours ahead (at the moment) and our antipodean seasons are opposite to yours. You New Englanders, pining for winter to arrive in force, can only dream our ‘summer holidays’ in Wanaka, where Tessa has so many treasured memories from the vacations of her youth...we are staying in a little house where Tessa and I visited her grandfather in 1993...

It feels as if we spent a week wondering in postcard land…Wanaka is a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains with snow-capped peaks in the distance. The brilliant hues of a NZ lake fed by glaciers vary from deep blue to vivid, deep green. Lake Wanaka and a parallel lake to the east, Lake Hawea, display these pristine palettes that provide such a feast for eyes and soul. As you might expect, the depth of these lakes reflects the mountainous terrain around them, 900 feet for one, around a thousand for the other.

The town of Wanaka consists of a handful of downtown blocks where essential shops mix with high-end tourist boutiques. Across the street is parking and a lengthy, beautiful public beach with a pier serving as the departure point for fishing tours and paddle boats. Older cottages, new motels and trophy homes are built well back from the water’s edge, a contrast to American style free-for-all private beach, exclusive puffery. When still, the cool, dry air can heat up quickly because of the sun’s intensity--UV rays off the charts. The presence of backpackers and mountain bikers gives off a sporting, ‘young’ atmosphere. Mixed altogether, we have a 'green' Aspen/Wellfleet.

We are ending a week of walks and swims with a few commercial entertainments thrown in. In the latter category are this morning’s souvenir, present and postcard shopping (Tessa and Lily) whilst Willem and I went to ‘Have a Shot’, where Wim shot 30 rounds of 22 caliber bullets at three, successive targets. He bagged quite a few bull’s eyes and destroyed one yellow clothes peg (clothespin) which had held up his last target. Iffy weather on our first day determined a trip to Puzzle World. There, a small museum of holograms, various other visual illusions and weird rooms are complemented with a large outdoor maze. (The goal is to find and climb each of the four corner towers, average time of between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. Lily and I ‘won’, followed closely after by Wim and Tessa.) The indoor climbing wall (at the Wanaka Climbing Center—different day) was also a bit hit with both kids.

In addition to the little park within walking distance of 'our' cottage--with its clever swirling things to ride and a dinosaur slide--are the standout non-commercial segment of our holiday pursuits: the tramp (hike) up (and down) Mt Iron, affording spectacular views of the parallel lakes and the next day’s clambering down a rocky path to a gorge with pool for jumping into…from the rocks. This took a little nerve…the water was flowing out of the little pool fairly swiftly, turning into a river that feeds the lake. We saw young English tourists doing the same and Tessa had partaken of these pleasures in her youth…i.e, we knew this was basically safe…Wim was first to try (to his credit), Tess declined (nerve and bathing suit issues), Lily opted out and I went once, just to keep up appearances.

Reading and family games have consumed our at home time. Lily is reading “Anne of Green Gables”--a Christmas present from Grandma; I finished two little books and my latest New Yorker (Dec. 12th issue which arrived after a later issue); Wim is reading a Eoin Colfer’s “The Supernaturalists” ; Tessa read a book about parenting. We have played ‘pick’ Scrabble, Balderdash, Mancala, and become obsessed with Yahtzee. From the picture window, we look out at water skiers, the occasional jet-skis, kayakers and sailboats (a race at the end of the afternoon), dreaming of which mode is most tempting--if our ship comes in…(goes out?)

Willem’s favorite things about Wanaka: “there are really amazing views; Puzzle World and Have a Shot are great rainy day activities” (even though we ‘did’ it on a sunny day…” the climbing wall was “fun”. Lily’s favorite things about Wanaka: the climbing wall— “I was not good at it at first but I got much better. For me, the highlights of Puzzle World were the Illusion Room and the Maze”.

According to the Otago Daily Times, Wanaka is in the grip of Triatholon fever. Event organizers are paying more than 300 local volunteers $50 each (to their chosen charity) enabling the community to raise at least $15,000. Economic research…has revealed an $8 million benefit for the region and $22 million benefit for NZ if 1,000 competitors compete. There are 250 competitors this year and 1000 are expected in two years. The event is the sister race to the Quelle Challenge Roth in Germany, the largest long-course triathlon course in the world, which attracts 130,000 spectators and 4000 athletes.

We will be packing for the drive back to Waikikamukau tomorrow while the triatholonists are challenging themselves. Our last scheduled events are the Presbyterian Church Fair this afternoon followed by a quick swim…at our favorite beach. We call it pug beach because the lake bed has a soft, gray, clay-like bottom resembling the mud mask at a cosmetic health spa when applied strategically. It makes your perfect mud ball. Wim’s favorite sculpture is the pug mud dog dropping. If left in the sun, this hardens like potter’s clay. Most kids wear wet suits…which gives you an idea of the water temperature. [Lake Hawea though is even colder. It is just about impossible for swimming there (meaning Tessa had a quick swim and I had a quick wade)]. Lake Wanaka is not too terrible as to temperature just now although our pug beach is so shallow that you need to walk out a half mile before being able to swim. In fact today, it turned out to be quite temperate, perfect after the hot fair.

It will be interesting to see what it feels like to return to our new home (and post)…