Living in Wanaka is simple and relaxing. Our only concern is who to hang out with at night and where to park our van to sleep. We wake up everyday at sunrise, which is about 8:00 and head to the bathrooms at the lake to brush, wash and get ready for our day. Most days we head up to Cardrona for a few hours and then come back to town in the afternoon and hang around until its time to make dinner. Depending on the day, we sit at the beach, read, go to the grocery store, walk around town or organize the van. Almost every day groups of people come down
Friday, July 16, 2010
Life in Wanaka
Living in Wanaka is simple and relaxing. Our only concern is who to hang out with at night and where to park our van to sleep. We wake up everyday at sunrise, which is about 8:00 and head to the bathrooms at the lake to brush, wash and get ready for our day. Most days we head up to Cardrona for a few hours and then come back to town in the afternoon and hang around until its time to make dinner. Depending on the day, we sit at the beach, read, go to the grocery store, walk around town or organize the van. Almost every day groups of people come down
Cardrona Alpine Resort
Cardrona is the closest "ski field" to Wanaka and where we have a seasons pass. The easiest way to get to Cardrona is to hitch hike from town because our van isn't really made for mountain roads and it saves a lot on gas. We park our van in a parking lot in the center of town, then walk up to the corner where everyone waits with their thumbs out. On an average day, it takes about 10 minutes to get picked up, usually by a local kid or the occasional family headed to the mountain. From hitching rides, we have made all of our friends in Wanaka, because it gives you about a half hour to talk on the ride up. After a 25 km easy drive on a paved road lined with sheep, you head up the side of the mountain on a winding dirt road for about 13 km until you reach the top. The snow line here is much higher up, so all of the skiing is done on the very tops of the mountains, where there are no trees. W

Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Tour of our van Seymore
This video is showing our accommodations for the next couple months. Click the white arrows on the right bottom of the video to make it full screen.
http://vimeo.com/13139913
http://vimeo.com/13139913
Wanaka New Zealand
After only spending a night in Queenstown, we drove up over the mountains and arrived in Wanaka. We heard that this town was where the real locals lived and has a small town vibe and we immediately felt that. The town sits right on Lake Wanaka and is surrounded by mountains with snow on the tops. it is filled with small cafes, ski and snowboard shops, and ski bums from around the world. We decided that this would be the place where we would live for the summer(or winter). Now that we chose our city, it was time to make friends and we immediately started trying to talk to everyone we could find. It was lonely for the first couple days but we soon began to meet a few people and it is beginning to feel more like home. One down fall with Wanaka is that many other people are doing the same exact thing as we are so it has been hard to find a job. We're being persistent and hoping something opens up so we have a little more spending money and don't have to live on as big of a budget as we have been. Sorry for the lack of pictures but more Wanaka blogs will follow.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Queenstown
We arrived in Queenstown mid afternoon, again to encounter a magnificent rainbow. it stretched across the sky and ended in the lake (we saw a pot of gold). Sitting on a super blue/green lake with massive mountains surrounding, its no wonder Queenstown is a popular city among tourists. We first began to drive though town checking things out and looking for a hostel to stay in because it was supposed to be a chilly night. We checked into Black Sheep Backpackers where we had a warm room to share with four other people. That night we ventured out into the town in search of new friends and fun. The town seemed similar to Park City and we soon found ourselves in a bar where peanut shells covered the ground. We met people from many different countries and unfortunately found out that they, along with the whole town were tryin
Sunday, June 27, 2010
South Island Drive
We boarded the Blue Bridge Ferry right about sunrise. The scenic three hour voyage took us to Picton where we boated though multiple different ocean sounds with mountainous coasts. On the boat you could sit and watch a movie, dine in the
North Island Drive
We headed out from Auckland in our old but trusty Toyota Hiace camper van. The van is equipped with a pop top, bench seating that converts into a bed, a fridge, a sink, stove and many cabinets for storage. Once we moved in, it became even more homey on the inside. We began our journey down the West Coast of the North island, where we encountered mountains, rainforest, farms and black sand beaches. These beaches were in
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)