On Saturday 26. September Marcell, Tanatswa, Brie and I headed out for our weekend-trip to Wanaka. Whereas this was already the second time for Marcell and me to visit the gorgeous town of Wanaka, it was a first for Tanatswa and Brie. We left Dunedin at 8 o`clock in the morning and reached Wanaka three and a half hours later right on time to get some lunch. Invigorated by some delicious burgers we left Wanaka behind us and drove to the car-park at the bottom of Roys Peak, an outstanding 1600 meter high mountain located directly next to Lake Wanaka.
Tanatswa and Brie getting ready for the approximately six hour long hike to Roys Peak (about three and a half hours up and two and a half back down).
After taking an obligatory selfie at the start of the track, we began the ascend of what I´d consider as one of the most beautiful mountains I´ve ever been to.
The path lead us through almost bucolic landscapes that reminded me a little bit of the alpine pastures back home in Austria. After about half an hour of hiking we decided to split our group up and Marcell and me speeded up a little bit while the two girls kept their pace and brought up the rear.
After about two hours of hiking we reached this breath-taking viewpoint where we took some absolutely staggering pictures. But see for yourself:
This is the tiny path leading to the viewpoint from where you can not only see Lake Wanaka but also the snow-covered summits of the surrounding mountains that create an absolutley stunning panorama.
Me standing on top of the viewpoint...
... glancing at the snow-covered peaks on the horizon, contemplating about the extraordinary beauty of this country.
Climbing up the ridge of Roys Peak wasn´t really a challenge for two Austrians like Marcell and me, as we´re used to much steeper and much more perilous ascends, but it was a good feel to be back in the mountains.
Although it was a really beautiful and warm day, it got a little chillier and windier en route to the top and I was glad that I had brought my warm winter jacket with me.
Brie and Marcell en route to the top, carefully walking on top of the ridge. Tanatswa had decided to stay at the viewpoint and take a break there and wait for us to return to her.
After about three and a half hours we finally reached the summit! From left to right you can see the winding path leading to the top, the freezing cold Lake Wanaka with its surrounding mountains and the town of Wanaka itself on the very right side of the picture.
Group picture of Marcell, Brie and me on top of the mountain. Although it had been a quite exhaustive hike, the mind-blowing panorama was absolutely worth it!
Brie and me on the way back down passing by a snowfield.
Some of our flatmates, who had done this hike two or three weeks ago, had told us about huge snowfields at the summit of Roys Peak. But the tepid temperatures of the last few days had molten away most of the snow and this was the tiny rest of snow that was still left.
On the way back down to the car-park we stopped at the viewpoint located halfway up the mountain once more, picked up Tanatswa and took some more pictures of this gorgeous panorama.
Two hours later we finally got back to the bottom and drove back to our hostel in Wanaka. We had a very tasty Indian dinner at one of the numerous dainty restaurants at Wanaka´s lakeside-street, encountered two American acquaintances of ours and went to an Irish pub to enjoy a glass of apple cider while playing some pool.
We didn´t stay out for too long because we wanted to get up early the next morning and finally go skiing again!
So we got up at 7 the next morning and drove to a shop called "Rocket Rentals" where we rented our skiing-equipment. One hour of driving later we reached the car-park at Treble Cone (TC). Although the "road" reminded us very much of the dirt-road leading up to Mt. Cardrona where we had been skiing a few weeks prior, the road was in a way better condition this time! Although even steeper than the Mt. Cardrona road, the TC dirt-road wasn´t muddy and slippery at all and our car had excellent grip on the dry gravel. Not that I´d complain about that!
The highest point of the TC ski-resort is even higher than Roys Peak´s summit, so the view down to Lake Wanaka was at least as astonishing as the one we´ve had from Roys Peak the day before! Unfortunately I had forgotten my skiing-goggles in Austria, so I had to wear my sunglasses... Not very professional I have to admit. But at least I had something to protect my eyes from both the airflow while skiing and the extremely intense reflection of the sun-rays from the snow.
What a beautiful spring-day! Not a single cloud in the sky.
Whereas most of the ski-resorts in Austria are located in the middle of the Alps and you´re surrounded by mountains at all times, TC is completely different. TC´s slopes offer you a view unlike anything else. The blue sky and tepid spring temperatures created an almost unreal ambience!
Unlike Mt Cardrona, TC is a ski-resort that´s more suitable for advanced skiers and offers some red and black slopes. Maybe not entirely comparable to Austrian black-diamond slopes but still quite steep and challenging due to the icy conditions in the morning.
With only two lifts and only a few more slopes, TC is a rather small ski-resort for Austrian standards, but is considered as one of the biggest (sic!) ski-resorts in New Zealand...
While checking out the six or seven different slopes TC has to offer, we found this hidden jewel. A concealed viewpoint at the edge of the mountain.
On this picture you can see the car-park and the serpentine-like ascending road leading up to the lower terminus.
A lot more people than expected came to TC that weekend because it was already closing weekend and therefore the last chance to go skiing for the next nine months or so. So the car-park was already full pretty early and people had to park their cars on the brink of the road (and walk up to the lift with all their equipment for almost a kilometer!).
We skied for about four or five hours and drove back to Wanaka and spent the rest of this beautiful afternoon at Lake Wanaka where the girls had spent most of their day.
Peaceful atmosphere underneath the gorgeous mourning willows at Lake Wanaka. Unfortunately it was already time to leave this lovely little paradise in Central Otago behind us and go back to university-life in Dunedin. But I´m pretty sure that I´ll come back to Wanaka at some point during the summer-break!
On Sunday 13. October Marcell, Rachel, Jenna, Nate and I headed out to visit some new sights on the Otago Peninsula. We started quite early in the morning because we had a lot of different attractions in mind. Our first stop was Larnach Castle, the only castle Dunedin has to offer.
The castle was built by the well-known Larnach family in the late 19th century and its estimated worth runs up to an impressive worth of $900 million according to Wikipedia.
One of the heaps of pretentious living rooms the castle offers its residents.
View from one of the sleeping rooms down to the rambling gardens and the entry driveway.
Standing on top of the castle you can not only see the whole Otago peninsula on the right side but also the mainland on the left side of the picture and as well as the Pacific ocean and Dunedin´s harbour.
Every castle needs at least one tower, so does Larnach Castle. Unfortunately there was no way of climbing up to the top of the tower and replacing the kiwi flag with the much more gorgeous Austrian flag ;)
In the ostentatious Ball Room of the castle you can either wine and dine or just relax in front of one of the numerous chimneys and sip a cup of excellent English tea.
The lush vegetation of the castle´s gardens has a lot to offer, so we spent at least a full hour strolling around in the gardens exploring the beauty of nature.
By then we were getting quite hungry and it was obviously time to leave this stunning location behind us and get some lunch. After eating some delicious sandwiches in a restaurant nearby we drove further out the peninsula until we reached the very end of it.
The tip of the peninsula does not only afford the highly noticed Albatross Center but you also encounter myriads of seagulls there.
Here I was reminiscing of my childhood when my brother and me were trying to catch some pigeons or seagulls when we were on a vacation in Sienna, Italy. As a kid I was pretty sure that it would get a lot easier to actually catch one once I´d be grown up... Well, today I think that I had far better chances as a kid....
Group picture in front of the lighthouse that marks the tip of the Otago Peninsula.
The peninsula is a paradise for all sorts of animals: from albatrosses and seagulls to seals and penguins that inhabit the numerous stunning beaches.
We decided that it was time for a little hike so we drove back to the starting point of our tramping tour and walked up into the terrific, bucolic hills of the peninsula.
Jenna, Marcell and me somewhere en route to the top. You can see a lot of sheep and their lambs in the background of the picture. September is the main season for lambing and a lot of tramping paths are actually closed due to lambing. So we were quite lucky to find a path that wasn´t closed!
Dusk was already approaching so we decided to visit one more place today: Tunnel Beach. The diligent readers among you will now realize that I´ve already been at Tunnel Beach, but most of the others of our group haven´t and it´s such a breath-taking place that I didn´t mind to come back and visit it again. I only took that one picture this time but if you want to see more pictures of this stunning place, which is definitely one of the Top 10 places in New Zealand you can go to, just go back to my post from July :)
One week later on Sunday 20th September we came back to the peninsula to explore Allans Beach to (hopefully) finally encounter some seals and penguins. And indeed we found some!
Marcell bandying looks with a youngster-seal.
Don´t get too close Marcell! :P Seals can get quite aggressive if someone´s getting too close to them!
Two other seals are relaxing further down at the beach.
This doozy was so massive that we didn´t even try to get any closer than 5 or 6 meters to it!
Astonishing ambience at dusk at Allans beach. This is supposedly the best time to see the "little blue penguins", the worlds smallest penguins and a very rare species, but unfortunately we didn´t find any.... So we might have to come back to this mind-blowing beach at some point to finally see some penguins!
