The ConnXtions van showed up at 9. The driver was a sheep farmer. His sons now run the operation. We asked him about the green, plastic wrapped bales that we had seen on the fields. Charlie and I thought they were hay that had been wrapped to protect it from rain. Our sheep farmer (Murray) explained that those bales were actually silage. Hay? Silage? to us it wasn't clear which was which. To Murray it was like trying to explain to someone who didn't know the difference between a car and a bicycle. Silage, he explained, is tightly packed field material that remains slightly damp. When wrapped up it breaks down and become the consistency of tobacco. The hay is left in rolls. The sheep, apparently, eat both. If there is something wrong with the damp material it can mold and the ewes lose their lambs. Aha! I asked if he had dogs. Yes - apparently several of them. You have to train them properly from the beginning. Once you yell at them, you have to keep upping the ante and yell louder. Therefore, don't yell at your dog. Aha.
We picked up a couple from another place, and eventually went to the airport and got one more guy. A young man from Newcastle who spent a lot of the trip explaining what it was like in England. After a half hour or so, Charlie mentioned that we had lived in Bristol a year and Cambridge a year. That really didn't stop him. The drive to Wanaka (emphasis on the first syllable - I kept emphasizing the second syllable and no one knew what town I was trying to say) was up the Cardrona valley. We went on a lot of switchbacks and, needless to say the scenery was beautiful. In one section Murray said that when he was a boy a local publican told him that there had been a Chinese prospector who lived in a shack in the valley. Once a month, the prospector would walk to the pub to buy supplies. Years passed, and one month the old prospector didn't show up. They went to his home and he was found frozen and in his bed. The publican told our sheep farmer (as a child) that since the ground was frozen and they couldn't bury him, they chopped off the prospector's feet and drove him like a stake into the ground. Murry believed that for years. Not true of course.
We got to Wanaka around 11. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to go into town. Wanaka is very small (roughly a third the size of Queenstown which has 20,000 people) We found a Patagonia Chocolate/cafe and got wonderful cappuccinos with chocolate sprinkled on the top.
We then decided to walk on Lake Wanaka's beach for a bit. The backdrop to the lake are the Southern Alps. In the photos, the peak on the left is called Mt Aspiring. We decided to go back and get some lunch after an hour's walk. We found a pie shop and sat on some rocks on the beach for our lunch. We were eyeballed by gulls, ducks, and small brown birds waiting for some pie errors. At the end, I tossed a spare piece of my pie to them - dozens appeared - like the movie The Birds.
Looking back at Wanaka from the beach walk
We went back to the hotel and decided since it was such a lovely day, clear and 80° F, that we'd try our hand at kayaking. We decided we'd try a double kayak. I wasn't sure if 1.) I could do this and 2.) if Charlie's bum left hip would let him do it either. Both fears were unfounded. I really loved this. We paddled around for an hour, then went back to the hotel. I didn't bring my camera for fear of a capsize - but again - groundless fear.
Our kayak. I took the photo just before the kayak renter was driving them away.
We went back to the room. Charlie had some work to do and I read.
The photos below are views from our room
After our kayaking adventure we were given free drinks at a local pub/restaurant called the Water Bar. We had already decided in our walk around town that the menu looked pretty good. It was. Back to the hotel. Tomorrow we're off to Franz Josef - odd name for a New Zealand town.
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