#Wanaka

Having been promised by Jen and Paul that this town was basically the best place in NZ, we met them as arranged at a vary rainy lakeside campsite. However against all odds we woke up to beautiful views over the lake to snow capped mountains and soon realised what all the hype had been about.

We set off for a hike around the lake to a nice picnic spot, before we felt we’d done enough of a token walk to head to the distillery. The free tastings of single malt vodka and barrel aged gin were amazing, but not quite enough to justify the astronomical prices. We could stretch to a cheeseboard though (thanks J&P!), which hit the spot perfectly after Cat and Jen got a little squiffy from the tastings.

We headed out for dinner via a walk along the lake front past #thatwanakatree, a tree in the middle of the lake that Instagram seems to have made famous, although at the time it looked half drowned in the spring high water levels. #instababy made it even more popular although this time managed to largely avoid being papped by other tourists.

After a leisurely breakfast on our fancy campsite (heated toilet & shower block- what luxury!) our chosen token walk was Mount Iron, a pleasant wander with views over the town and to the mountains before and excellent Italian for lunch and saying bye to J&P. Next stop: Puzzling world. A massive outdoor 3D maze, rooms full of optical illusions and a cafe with puzzles and cakes- awesome! Eddie turned into a giant, and we attempted to work off some of our massive Italian lunch and cakes running round the maze. Fun times 😀