Prior to leaving Te Anau, I ventured into Miles Better Pies for one more seafood pie. Miles himself came and greeted me, asked where I was off to today and I said back to Queenstown, sad face. We both griped about how touristy it was there. Miles said it'll only get worse- both crowd and cost. He asked if I worked there and I laughed and said no, I'm from San Francisco, California. He asked if I've been to Sausalito. I laughed again and said I live there now. He inquired to see if the simple Hamburgers shop was still operating and I said yes, simple, takeaway burgers to go. Apparently, that inspired this simple takeaway pie shop to open 11 years ago! I'll file that under cool wanderlust tales.
Arrived in Queenstown, walked into the Absoloot Hostel and there was Noreen in the lounge waiting for my arrival! The highlight of our time in Queenstown was finally getting a taste of the popular Ferg Burger! All day long, lines run down the street to get a taste of this Ferg. At 4pm, a non-existent five minute line and we understood why.
The next morning, we boarded a bus to Wanaka, realized we could go direct from Wanaka to Franz Josef vs. having to return to Queenstown, so the first thing we did once we arrived was change our bus tickets. Now we gain an extra day in Franz Josef, score!
Wanaka is a gem of a town. Thanks to my friend, Ray for the tip to come here. It lacks the dramatic cliff surroundings of Queenstown but has a cool authentic vibe about it that Queenstown lacked. It's home to a cozy lavender farm with dramatic characters of alpacas. This is where we probably would have done our steepest hike up Roy's Peak! It's 16km of no joke rated hard with a 1578m summit. I prefer to call it the mountain of never ending switchbacks! It took us about 3 hours to ascend up to breathtaking views though the theme for the 2.5 hour descend was, "Are the cars getting bigger yet?" "Nope?" was often the answer. Special shoutout to the nice Kiwi at the hostel for giving us a ride to the start of the trail and to the nice English couple that answered our hitchhike call back!
The most adventurous thing we did here and probably for the rest of this trip, took place at a spot called Matukituki Valley here in Wanaka. We did what folks here call, deep canyoning guided by an awesome duo, who I think would make a great couple, Rene and Jeremy. In simple terms, we did a steep climb up the canyon for half an hour and then it was an all day adventure of repelling down waterfalls, jumping into them, sliding down them even face first and zip lining across. It was 10% fear and 90% awesome! I even have a wrist full of war wounds to show for it. Having those burgeoning waterfalls in your face as you're abseiling down is no joke! I was so proud of Noreen for tackling and finishing the course! I at least had some experience from rock climbing that I can draw from but she dived in blind and did amazing!
Here is a video of the type of fun we had: http://youtu.be/7kT9a7A_j0s
Tomorrow, we leave this gem of a town enroute for Franz Josef! #lovewanaka
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