Det blåser hårt, det blåser kallt …

We enjoyed our stay very much and wanted to chill a bit more so after breakfast we split up so parents headed off to Cromwell while we moved to another suite and then drove off to Wanaka for a shorter day-trip.

Wanaka Tree

It was quite windy, so we took the advice from one at the hotel and took a shorter trek starting in the city near the shore towards Rippon Wine estate. A few photos and little less than an hour later we were up on the hills at Rippon Winery and enjoyed a quick wine-tasting.

Decent job drinking wine with tourists and this view…

Juni were a magnet for asian tourists and surprised us by waving and winking back to them – a first and nothing she had returned to us. We walked back with two bottles of wine and stopped in Wanaka city centre for some supermarket shopping and then back to apartment for chilling, long warm showers and in general enjoying vacation, I mean parental leave of course.

#nofilter view from suite

During the evening I finished Cibola Burn, which without a doubt was the best book in the Expanse series so far, next up is Nemesis Games!

Azure much?

We woke up at Mountain Chalets Motel, and as we were packing we sang Happy Birthday for mother who turned 60 before checking out.

We had breakfast at Shanty’s Cafe in Twizel, and then backtracked forty minutes to to Lake Pukaki for a walk along the shore. The weather wasn’t as epic as yesterday but still a very nice walk – and given better fit and more time we could perhaps have walked around the whole lake but instead after an hour or so of enjoying the views we headed further southeast to Omarama.

Solving world problems

Lenticular clouds over Mt Cook

Black wood – and apparently not by fire

As we drove on further we stopped at The Wrinkly Ram cafe, which had Merino clothing (not any significant discounts though) and lambs for Juni to meet and greet. What they did not have was warm food so drove further into Omarama to some rather run-down place which served hot stone meat to parents joy while Mona and I had the salmon.

As the afternoon progressed we started looking for accommodation and found a surprisingly cheap stay at Lake Hawea Hotel (split level suite for 160 NZD) which we booked without really taking time to do research. Turns out the view was amazing – perhaps not Lake Pukaki but still among, if not the, best nature view I’ve had from a hotel room. The split level family apartment layout suited us great and to top things off the high-quality restaurant was 25m from our door.

Enough photos on lakes, so here’s a photo of dad taking a lake photo from the balcony

We had birthday dinner at the restaurant where parents had something mainly consisting of meat and I got something asian – all were happy and we ended yet another awesome day in New Zealand.

First up on the agenda was Ashford Village, where yarn, wool and handloom weaving machines (the latter not for sale luckily) competed in focus. I however decided to invest in car-charger for iThings first, stock up at the supermarket and then meet parents at the nice café next to Ashford Village, Nosh.

Most of the hipster checkboxes were checked at Farm Barn Café

We then drove southwest towards Fairlie, and had lunch at Farm Barn Café, which had not only a lovely view but also toasts. It was now warm and sunny, so we took our time before heading onwards to lake Tekapo.

I don’t think photos manages to capture the serenity and beauty of Tekapo, the greenish lake with majestic snow-clad mountains in the background is best experienced by just sitting there and breathing.

This isn’t photoshopped

Parents had now checked in at Twizel in a Chalet so we decided to move on and passed Lake Pukaki, and if Lake Tekapo was serene and beautiful this was simply breathtaking.

Neither is this one.

More photos than needed were taken, we also just stayed and watched for a while – amazing and I was not surprised when I spotted a wedding photographer in action with this as backdrop. That said it was quite empty from people, I blame the early/pre-season but I could have stayed in a camper there for a few days if time wasn’t limited.