The Wandering Chocoholic

Kia Ora from Wanaka, a small town about 100km north of Queenstown and set against the beautiful lake for which it was named. The hostel where I stayed last night was right on the lakefront, and the views at sunset were indescribable.

I’ve spent the past few days working my way down the west coast, from Greymouth to Franz Josef and then Fox Glacier, and then down through the Haast Pass to Wanaka. The days and nights are getting colder as I move south, but on the whole, I’ve been unbelievably lucky thus far in terms of the weather. The west coast is known for constant rain, and yet the past few days have been sunny, beautiful, almost without a cloud in the sky.

On Tuesday, I went on a day-long glacier hike at Fox. It was certainly a unique experience. Wearing boots fitted with crampons, our group followed an alpine guide to the peaks of the glacier, which is one of three in the world that comes down below the treeline. The guide would cut fresh “steps” into the ice, and we just carved out a path to the summit and back through the icefalls. (I’ll tell you, it would sure be nice having those crampons sometimes at home, especially when the municipal workers go on strike and don’t salt the sidewalks.) The hike was hard work and I was completely exhausted afterwards, but it was certainly memorable. The weather was perfect, the views from the top were stunning, and after all, how many people can say they’ve had a picnic lunch atop a glacier?

After the hike, I was ready to collapse, but luckily I was convinced by a friend I’d spent the day with to hop on the shuttle bus to Lake Matheson. The lake is probably New Zealand’s most famous view, since on a clear day it is smooth as glass and the mirrored reflections of Mts Tasman and Cook are clearly visible in the water. We made the short ninety-minute loop around the lake and got our “picture-perfect” photo ops.

Yesterday, we made our way to Wanaka, passing through Knight’s Point on the coast, and through the Haast Pass. We also stopped to see a waterfall in Mount Aspiring National Park, before arriving in Wanaka in the early afternoon.

One of the most bizarre attractions here in Wanaka is something called the Puzzling World, which is a museum filled with puzzles, holograms, optical illusions, a giant maze that is much more frustrating than it appears, and a room that seems to defy gravity. Definitely weird.

Today, I’m going to spend some time hanging out in Wanaka, before catching the bus onto Queenstown this afternoon.

Keep the e-mails coming, everyone. And thanks for all the hockey updates, though logging in to about twelve e-mails with the scores in my inbox is *slight* overkill. It was handy knowing what’s going on, though, as I ran into a couple of Montrealers in the hostel who were very interested to hear we’re still in the race. Go Habs!