NZ Day 7 : Wanaka

25/9/10 (Sat)



With the cancellation of our Milford Sound cruise, we figured why stay in Queenstown for another day? We were practically running out of things to do there. (Fyi, I do not consider bungee-jumping, sky diving or canyon swinging a 'to-do-thing', it's more like a 'to-die-wish').



Luckily, last minute changes still got us a room reserved in Wanaka, a place we had initially planned on just dropping by, instead of staying a night in.



It was going to be a long day to be spending in a small town like Wanaka so we took our own sweet time to sleep-in in Queenstown and only started our drive at 10am.



The drive to Wanaka had to be one of the best drives as we were driving up and cutting through the mountains. We felt so high up; could almost touch the clouds.

We were grateful for the sunny dry weather as there were frequently seen loose rocks and stones on the mountains; it could easily have turned into a landslide if it was raining heavily.

Told ya it was beautiful drive with mountains left and right.

The roads were so long and winding, we were looking at 'W's and 'M's on our GPS.

Passing by the town known as 'Cardrona'

About an hour and a half later, we arrived at our YHA Wanaka, fondly known as 'Purple Cow'.

Not a bad bed for NZD 89 night.

What's with the flags on the roofs?

The reception and lounge area for chillaxing.
We also bumped into the same Chinese couple we met earlier in Lake Tekapo. They were scheduled for a sky dive in Wanaka and invited us to join them but (gulp)..sorry guys, not my cup of tea.., would just end up in a bucket of pee.

This is wonderful Wanaka situated in the Otago region and southern part of Lake Wanaka. It is also a gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. The list of activities here is endless - hiking, biking, water skiing, fishing, and on and on ... all can be arranged just by going to their i-Site office.

We wandered around this tiny town looking for lunch.

We decided to grab some takeout from this place coz they had a pathetic-looking fish greeting us.

We had a couple of unhealthy, meaty, fatty burgers, of course.

I found this place in the Internet and thought it might be a cool place to visit.

I mean, there must be some level of quirkiness to a place called 'Puzzling World' which looks like this from the front right?

Plus, it was a much cheaper activity compared to the rest - entrance fee was (only) NZD 25 for 2. *grin*

A short introduction to this place.

Can't wait to see what's in store...

I say 'Bring it on!'

The Leaning Tower of Wanaka has a clock with everything in reverse.

A little play room with loads of puzzles and mind-boggling games for the public to meddle with.

First up was the Great Maze where the ultimate aim was to find all four colored towers within a stipulated time frame.

Off we went...I've always dreamt of running around in a maze like this; only that it was full of hedges and shrubs, not wooden planks.

Feeling like lost lamb, we were scrambling round and round the place looking for those 4 corners.

No help from the others trapped in the maze with us.

Don't worry in case of an emergency or fire; you can still crawl your way out through the space beneath those planks.

Here's proof that we reached all four towers!

And you just got to believe that we did it in 45 minutes.

All that running around and we desperately needed a toilet break after that.

A real 'public' toilet...

Kidding! It wasn't really a toilet....just a damn good mural depicting the ancient roman toilets.

LOL..coool, I loved it!

Next, it was time for the Hologram Hall to view some remarkable 3-D hologram pieces.

Hard to describe leh, you just gotta see it for yourself.

Me playing with a plasma ball. Only my second time playing with this type of ball.

I was pretty much awed and freaked out at the same time by this room.

As I was walking around the room, turning my head right and left, up and down, all 168 giant model faces seemed to turn and follow me too!

How it's done, it's pure genius!

As if we weren't baffled enough by the eccentricity of this place, we had to deal with the Tilted House next. This entire room is tilted at an angle of 15 degrees. The illusion here is so much so that our brain kept telling us the floor is not sloping. That's how we ended up walking and standing funny.

If I leave my mum in this room for 5 minutes, she'll go insane.

The Ames False Perspective Room was my favourite one of all.

This illusion technique was what created those little hobbits or those giant people you see in LOTR.

Watch, this is a perfectly normal looking room.

BUT the shape of this room is actually totally distorted because you can actually be seen growing taller and shrinking in size as you move around the room like this...

...and this.

Total camouflage!

I wished they had more rooms for me to explore (was having so much fun!), but it was the end of our tour here.
Last thing we did was to head outdoors and took more silly shots.

tsk tsk tsk...aaaahh....

bionic woman or woman playing tai-chi?

Exhausted from all those eye-opening illusions, we drove around a bit and somewhere towards the Wanaka Airport, we stumbled upon this National Transport and Toy Museum.

Which turned out to be quite a bore actually...(yawn)

Even the aliens can't wait to be out from this place.

Then there was the NZ Fighter Pilots Museum which we didn't bother to pay NZD 10 just as entrance fee. The museums here were so laid back and had no other visitors there but us. I certainly don't want to end up like that guy in 'Night at the Museum' movie.

Evening came and Lake Wanaka never looked so serene and calm.The park surrounding the lake had little children playing in the swings, senior citizens enjoying their evening stroll and ducks waddling about looking for food crumbs thrown by picnic goers.

So romantic!It felt so safe here, you can easily go up to a stranger and shake his hand.

how do you do, mate...i'm mark.

I was determined to try something 'daring' and be adventurous for my dinner meal.

First stop was this place I read in a travel brochure I found in Purple Cow.

I told dear, "I must eat something S-P-I-C-Y today! It's been a week without chilli!"

So the sweet waitress there recommended their Happy Hour Special, NZD 10/ RM 23 for 5 really BIG-sized Buffalo Wings in BBQ Sauce.

And it was OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD, lip-smacking, finger licking, BLAZING HOT wings!!

So good so good so good so good so good so good so good ......

(cut dat out oredi, no way i can get my hands on you again..waaaaahhhh)

Not even the sour cream was spared!

This place claims to sell the ONLY buffalo wings in NZ! For real??!

I've tasted TGiF's buffalo wings before and it's NOWHERE near Uncle Mike's.

Wings was pre-dinner.

Burp.

Time for a main course at 'The Cow'.

Looks like someone's house from the outside.

But the inside was really warm and cosy coz they had a fireplace running.

A very rustic interior, it felt good eating in here. Good choice of restaurant, I patted my own head.

We were given a choice of either a loaf or half a loaf of garlic bread.

Thank God half a loaf turned out to be just nice for two of us.

The way they served garlic bread would put Pizza Hut to shame!

The bread was wholemeal and baked fresh with a rich garlic topping. Served whole on a wooden chopping block with a slab of herbed butter, we got to cut our own bread pieces and spread the aromatic butter all over the soft warm bread. Tell me this photo doesnt make you melt all over......

Since we were too full to stomach an entire pizza, we ordered half a serving of their Mushroom + Cream + Cheese pasta. Could have been better, the pasta was too soft.

Downed all the rich food with a glass of apple juice. sweet.

Later during the night, we bumped into Zack and Mandy again who had successfully sky-dived earlier that day. Hearing them speak of their freefall from 12,000 feet then 45-second experience in mid-air made me kinda wished I had the guts to do so too. And possibly the money too. (A skydive costs about NZD 299 per person/ RM 700!).

Apparently, Mandy claimed that for someone afraid of heights (like herself), sky diving is not as terrifying as bungee jumping. It is merely that split-second after jumping out of the plane that makes you jump out of your skin, afterwhich when your chute opens, it will be an irreplaceable 45 seconds of awe-inspiring 360 degree breathtaking views.

All that and you are given a cert, dvd and precious pictures to boast to family and friends.

Do try it if you have the chance!

Zack and Mandy were such great people to chat with, though they spoke in a heavily accented Mandarin and we were kinda struggling to understand and respond in their language, sometimes creating new words along the way. lol. We watched their skydiving videos together, discussed on our future places to visit in NZ, countries we've been to in the past, family life, working life and everything else we could think of.

But I think they were also having a hard time trying to understand what we were saying.

Because all the while, they kept referring to Mark as Mike.